Review #673: 'Lifeforce' (1985)

Of all the crazy films Cannon Films put out there between their emergence in 1967 to their demise in 1993, I doubt any are quite as out-there as Lifeforce, Tobe Hooper's half space-opera, half end-of-the-world thriller. Although it's far from his best film, Hooper clearly had big visions for Lifeforce and, with some confidant support from the film's producers, it looks visually impressive. Starting out as essentially an Alien (1979) rip-off (didn't they all around this era?), the film moves on to vampire movie, action movie, zombie movie and then disaster movie. It's an insane trip, but, if you can forgive its many, many flaws, this is actually a lot of fun.

The crew of space shuttle Churchill locate an alien craft inside the corona of Halley's Comet, and inside they find hundreds of dead alien bodies, as well as three humanoids, suspended and frozen inside glass pods. On their return journey, all contact is lost with mission control. The rescue mission find the entire crew dead from a fire, but the humanoids intact. The aliens are taken back to a research centre in London, watched over by Dr. Fallada (Frank Finlay). While there, the female alien awakens and sucks the 'life force' out of a guard, turning him into a shrivelled zombie. She escapes, and S.A.S. operative Col. Caine (Peter Firth) and Col. Carlsen (Steve Railsback) - whose escape pod from Churchill is found in Texas - start trying to track down the mysterious alien vampire.

If the movie has one trump card, it is in the form of Mathilda May, who plays the female vampire. She is a woman of such staggering beauty that you can understand Carlsen's relentless pursuit of her, and the storyline that she has placed a kind of a love spell on him seems that little bit less ridiculous. Special mention must also go to John Dykstra (winner of the Academy Award for Star Wars (1977)), whose special-effects are still impressive to this day. The problems are that the plot is too convoluted, the acting is awkward, and Tobe Hooper over-reaches himself. It seems like his vision was so big, that he forgot to make it small enough to fit into 116 minutes and make a coherent movie. Still, it's a million times better than most sci-fi B-pictures of its era, and if you let it simply wash over you, Lifeforce is a bonkers hoot.


Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart, Michael Gothard
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #414: 'Poltergeist' (1982)

Successful realtor Steven Freeling (Craig T. Nelson) and his wife Diane (JoBeth Williams) live peacefully in their suburban community with their two daughters and son. Falling asleep in his chair one night, Steven wakens to find his youngest daughter Carol-Anne (Heather O'Rourke) talking to the static TV screen. She does the same thing the next night, only to announce to her parents that "they're heeerre!". Strange things start to happen around the house, until one night Carol-Anne is sucked into her closet which seems to be the conduit for the 'white light'; a light that the dead must walk into if they are to achieve peace. With their daughter missing, Steven and Diane call in a team of paranormal investigators, along with a creepy old woman called Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein).

Although it says 'directed by Tobe Hooper' in the credits, it has long been debated who in fact directed Poltergeist. All of Hooper's usual traits of screaming women, a masked or disfigured killer, grisly deaths, lots of blood, all with a Grindhouse feel, are noticeably absent. Instead, the film feels something much more Speilbergian, with the industry's most famous Jew listed in the credits with production and writing duties. Spielberg was heavily involved in the production, working on it almost back-to-back with E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial (1982), and it does have the same atmosphere as his family-friendly alien blockbuster. This works both for and against the film.

During this era, Spielberg was arguably at his best, and was one of the finest craftsmen of blockbusters and sheer entertainment perhaps ever. One of the key attributes to his 70's/80's films was his realistic portrayals of often broken families, and the characters of Steven and Diane are fully-realised, and more importantly wholly believable. The characterisation here is better than most horror films care to give, and these joint-smoking liberal parents are funny and real, and give a much-needed heart to the story.

Yet when Spielberg (sorry, Hooper!) gets over-excited and insistent on giving the audience something spectacular, I felt the film failed. Flying household objects and static tentacles I can deal with, but giant tree-arms, demon heads and a computer-generated monster take it many steps too far, and crushes any real feeling of atmosphere. The film is just too ridiculous to be remotely scary. Perhaps a more low-key approach would have been more effective, and as entertaining as the film was throughout (although it does have a climax too many), the theatrical effects make the film look dated and suffocate any chance of real scares. A clean, enjoyable horror, but hardly a memorable one.


Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight, Heather O'Rourke, Zelda Rubinstein
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #301: 'Eaten Alive' (1977)

After being thrown out of a brothel for refusing randy redneck Buck (Robert Englund), prostitute Clara (Roberta Collins) stumbles into a run-down hotel run by lonesome weirdo Judd (Neville Brand). Upon finding out she is a prostitute, Judd forces himself on her, and when she struggles and runs away, he butchers her with a scythe and feeds her to his pet giant crocodile. A family arrive at the hotel only to have their pet dog eaten by the croc and their daughter narrowly escaping death. The bodies begin to pile up as Judd tries to protect his beloved man-eater, and when Clara's father and sister turn up, Judd must also evade being discovered by the law.

Following up a horror masterpiece like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is hardly an envious task, but Tobe Hooper decided to stay in familiar surroundings with Eaten Alive (known as Death Trap in the UK). The Deep South provides plenty of opportunities to exploit the inbred yokel stereotype, and Tobe Hooper grabs it with both hands. Chain Saw was disturbing and occasionally genuinely frightening, but it appears that it was tragically a one-off. Eaten Alive contains none of the atmosphere or anything resembling those uncomfortable dinner scene moments of Chain Saw, and instead relies on a pleasingly over-the-top performance by Brand, and a terribly fake-looking rubber croc that appears all too fleetingly.

There are some likeable moments. Englund's character Buck (who has the film's brilliant introductory line "My name is Buck, and I'm here to fuck!" - homaged in Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)) is hilariously vile, but he is way underused. When the family arrives at the hotel, very little seems to happen. There is a murder here and there to lighten things up, but they are blandly staged. Hooper based the film on the real-life murderer Joe Ball who fed a suspected 20 women to his alligators back in the 1930's. It's a fascinating story ripe for a good film adaptation, but it is wasted by Hooper, who fails to squeeze any tension out of the proceedings.


Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Neville Brand, Mel Ferrer, Carolyn Jones, Marilyn Burns, Robert Englund
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #236: 'Salem's Lot' (1979)

In the late 1970's and early 1980's Stephen King was everywhere. His books were churned out like so much burger meat, and these were being very quickly greenlit for both film and television. Carrie (1976) of course was the springboard for this trend. Following the huge success of Brian De Palma's cinematic version, Warner Bros, who had the rights to King's vampire tale, decided after failing to get the screenplay correct (even the great Larry Cohen had a stab at it), to make the film for TV in two feature-length episodes (a mini-series), which could stay quite faithful to the source material - i.e. they could extend the film to 3 hours. But as a child this did not matter. I was unaware that it was made-for-TV.

As with practically all of King's work, the main character of the film is a writer: Ben Mears (David Soul) is new in the small town of Salem's Lot, where he has come to research a book he plans to write about the house of evil in the town - it's not really expanded upon that Mears was originally from the town. Also new to town is James Mason's Richard Stracker, who is opening an antiques store; but his sinister and mysterious character is seemingly just a custodian of the elusive Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder). As townsfolk begin to die, then become resurrected as vampires, the story unfolds, and the standard vampire hunt begins.

This is quite a languid but effective shocker. It is one of those films that I fondly remember form my childhood. The sequences where people are attacked by the vampires also sticks in my mind - and produces a knowing smile to my face - as the action is paused as the camera zooms into the teeth and the entrance wounds. What is also effective are the scenes where the young boy who was first victim, floats up to a friends window, smoke billowing behind him, as he taps on the window with a sound effect that gets to your teeth. The head vampire is an image I remember well as a child, but with hindsight (and a lot more film knowledge) it is clearly just a mimic of 1922's Nosferatu's Max Schreck rat-like vampire.

Directed by Tobe Hooper of Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) fame (he never has made a film close to his seminal debut), and he retains some interesting flourishes within the parameters of the television format. Whether this is still effective to a more modern audience is unknown. It certainly has it's many flaws, but holds it's charm for someone who watched it several times as a pre-teen.


Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Starring: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Reggie Nalder
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy

Review #189: 'The Funhouse' (1981)

Another bizarre entry onto the list of video nasties, one can only assume it was guilty by association. Directed by Tobe Hooper of Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) fame, whilst that film was not on the nasties list, it certainly impacted in the hearts and minds of any "respectable" censor. This entry did not spend much time in banned status, as it was released uncut in 1987, and was later reinstated with a 15 certificate in the early part of the "noughties". It is very difficult to see why (outside of my own speculation of director association) this film was even considered by the DPP, as it has not one element of horror or gore, or any kind of overtly "nasty" elements.

The narrative involves itself with four teenagers, Amy (Elizzabeth Berridge), Buzz (Cooper Huckabee), Liz (Largo Woodruff) and Richie (Miles Chapin), are on double dates to a local traveling carnival. They decide to stay the night in the funhouse. There they witness the murder of the carnivals fortune teller, by the deformed, retarded son of the owner. After Richie steals some money from the kitty, their presence is signaled. So proceeds a standard stalk-and-slash style climax.

Released at a time when there was practically a new slasher film released each week, The Funhouse shares more narrative ideas with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, than the majority of the slasher films, that were using Halloween (1978) as their template. This film is stylistically similar to Halloween, not using the more gritty, haphazardness of Chain Saw, it's cinematography almost replicating that Carpenter widescreen classiness. But the carnie "family" are closer to those Texans (replete with it's own Leatherface), than the lone figure so prevalent between 1978 and 1984. The film is pretty low on scares, but does pass by it's 90 minutes relatively quickly. This is not to say it's a terrible film. It certainly is better than much of the sub-genres output. But it's still a shame that Hooper was never able to recapture the excellence of his first feature. Something he has still yet to top.


Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Jeanne Austin
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy

Review #78: 'Spontaneous Combustion' (1990)

Nevada desert, 1955. Peggy and Brian Bell, are being experimented on by the US Army to test the effects of exposure to atomic energy whilst testing a nuclear bomb. The test seems to go well, and the Bells are located in a picturesque suburbia. However, after giving birth to their son, the couple suddenly spontaneously combusted, a clear effect of the nuclear fallout. The baby boy survives them, and grows up to be Sam (Brad Dourif).

So we flash forward to the present day, where Sam's freakish ability to combust becomes increasingly dangerous to both himself and others around him. In one scene (with a cameo from John Landis), Sam has called into a radio psychic DJ - who has now gone off the air - and gets through to the Landis' radio technician who refuses to pass him onto the DJ (Dr Persons - played by Joe Mays). This increases Sam's anger (which as we have seen previously, makes Sam burnier), and he projects fire through the phone (in a pseudo-telekinetic flash), which results in fire streaming from the knee-caps of poor Landis. Sam's main goal is to find out about his parents and to determine why these phenomena keep occurring.

Tobe Hooper has not had it easy since the release of exceptionally brilliant debut The Texas Chain-Saw Massacre (1974). All of his subsequent films have either fallen foul of studio intervention (Death Trap (1977), The Funhouse (1981)), executive producer Steven Spielberg's ultimate overbearing on-set presence (Poltergeist (1982), or just poorly conceived ideas (Lifeforce (1985), Invaders from Mars (1986) and Texas Chain-Saw Massacre 2 (1986)). He seems only in the latter part of the '80's produce Stephen King-like projects, either directly adapting a King novel (Salem's Lot (1979 -TV mini-series), or lifting pseudo-King story devices, much like Spontaneous Combustion. The use of fire as a telekinetic ability had been previously 'explored' in King's Firestarter.

This is not a great film. The production values are akin to the TV movies/series' that were being broadcast at the time. this was seen throughout the genre in the early years of the decade. This period is almost a vacuum of popular visual culture, with the exception of one horror, the TV series Twin Peaks (1990-1991). The camera movements and compositions are standard television production. Aside from the lack of visual flare, there is one element that never really fails to please. That is of course Brad Dourif. I find everything that Dourif is in to be thoroughly fun to watch. Even, as in this performance, when he is wildly over-the-top. His eyes intense, and his vociferousness projected directly into you brain, sharp and direct. No one does sweaty anger like Dourif does. So, in conclusion. Shit film, but it is totally be forgiven cause Brad Dourif is in it.

Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Brad Dourif, Cynthia Bain, Jon Cypher
Country: USA

Rating: **

Marc Ivamy