Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: William Asher

Starring: Jimmy McNichol, Susan Tyrrell, Bo Svenson, Julia Dufy, Marcia Lewis

From: Royal American Pictures

What a movie to watch during Pride Month!

I’ve known of this movie for years, that there are incestuous overtones, that this was one of Bill Paxton’s first roles-back then, he was known as William Paxton-that there was a twist. Well, I was unaware that homosexuality was a plot point, that negative stereotypes are mentioned and that Bo Svenson’s police detective is incredibly homophobic, uttering a certain slur often.

Poor Jimmy McNichol-no, not because he had the same hairstyle as his sister Kristy had at the time, to steal a line. Rather, he’s a 17-year-old who lost his parents as a toddler due to a car wreck. I’ve never seen Final Destination 2 but know its most famous death due to cultural osmosis-well, it was that kind of car wreck-that opening was shot by Jan de Bont, of all people. Jimmy’s aunt Cheryl is insane, and not just because she has “feelings” for her own nephew. She is mentally ill. Mix that with the vile character Sevenson portrayed and the movie is not the most comfortable watch.

Be that as it may, the movie is still perversely entertaining, especially if you enjoy watching trashy pictures. It is critical to note: the movie is NOT homophobic; in fact, the movie demonizes homophobia, portrays homosexual characters rather positively-especially for the era + presenting bad behavior from the cops-I know many will appreciate the film for those details alone. What I’ll remember most about this motion picture is the unsettling vibes throughout, some gory deaths, and especially the performance from Tyrrell.

Susan Tyrrell was tasked with delivering a BIG, BOLD performance, and this she did superbly. This went a key component of making Butcher a dark delight. The rest of the cast was fine (including Julia Duffy as Jimmy’s girlfriend & “That Guy” actor Britt Leach) and the direction from veteran William Asher was decent-much of his work was in television, including I Love Lucy and Bewitched! 

Whether you call it Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker or Night Watcher-an even more nonsensical title-this stands out as something different in the slasher era and for certain tastes, the picture will be a masterwork.

The Bowery

In the first of two posts I'll make tonight, here's an interesting Pre-Code picture I recently peeped: 

The Bowery (1933)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Raoul Walsh

Starring: Wallace Beery, George Raft, Fay Wray, Jackie Cooper, Pert Kelton

From: 20th Century Pictures 

I’ll apologize for not “being myself” a few times in June already; in fact, as the kids would say, I “crashed out” at least once! It’s best for me to forget about outside factors that have resulted in a lousy June so far. As I’m still hoping for a nice variety this month, the way I’ll return to normal is by viewing something old & obscure but the Pre-Code fans will at least find this interesting. A mutual’s rave review in the past put this on my radar; finally, I gave this a shot-I made the right decision w/ this Raoul Walsh effort.

This effort from 20th Century Pictures (as it was known then before they merged with Fox) couldn’t have been made once the Hays Code was a thing; I heard that a place name in 1890’s New York featured the N-word… that is correct. Well, that word is also said aloud, along with other racial slurs that won’t be repeated. That is only one of many wild moments-this was quite entertaining, even if Wallace Beery-in a totally Wallace Beery role-hits an annoying woman from behind w/ a slapjack, knocking him out! BTW, Beery is named CHUCK CONNORS.

Beery owns a saloon; George Raft-as STEVE BRODIE-is a rival. A unique conceit is that both lead volunteer fire brigades, although they move on from that plot point as their feud escalates once Fay Wray enters the picture. Little Jackie Cooper is also around-his character was SWIPES MCGURK-as a scamp who has Beery as a father figure. This balances different genres rather well: comedy, drama, romance, action, and there’s even a few songs. The film is a lot of fun-salacious moments aside-even if the two stars did not get along during filming-allegedly because Raft started getting cast in roles that Beery would have had before. Spoiler, but the two characters fight each other and well, it apparently got out of hand.

The pace is fast, the cast full of familiar faces-there’s small parts for Charles Middleton, “That Guy” actor Irving Bacon, Paulette Goddard, Heinie Conklin (he of many movies & many Three Stooges shorts) and in an important historical note, The Bowery was Lucille Ball’s first role. Pert Kelton was a performer unknown to me yet she was utterly delightful in her few scenes.

The Bowery was a rather good tonic that brightened my mood; hopefully there will be no further hiccups in the month of June.

An Update

Here's what I posted yesterday on Letterboxd instead of a film review due to massive site issues which involved me posting the same review twice Don't worry, I'm back to normal now... well, as normal as I'll ever be: 

For those wondering why I posted two reviews of the same movie yesterday that were identical except for the second review including an opening blurb bemoaning how horrible the Letterboxd site is… that’s because the Letterboxd site is horrible, barely functional in general to the point it’s like everything is held together by chewed gum and chicken wire but was nonfunctional for a long period yesterday, while attempting to post a review. June still hasn’t been a great month so far and at the time this kerfuffle was occurring, the idea of taking a sabbatical from a site that's inexcusably bad for the amount of years this platform has existed was a strong one.

Today, I don’t feel that way; however, I still am miffed at how bad the site is, at least on desktop-the app has its own bugaboos. Don’t you just love it that for YEARS, when you attempt to follow someone, on almost every occasion you have to press the “follow” button like a DOZEN times before the action finally occurs?

If I continue to experience massive issues in simply attempting to post a review, then yes expect a sabbatical from me that’ll last who knows how long. For now, though, expect business as usual starting tomorrow. No way did I feel like checking out any films last night.

Brigade of Death

Brigade of Death (Brigade Des Moeurs) (1985)

Runtime: 96 minutes 

Directed by: Max Pecas

Starring: Thierry de Carbonnieres, Jean-Marc Maurel, Lillemour Jonsson, Bernard Rosselli, Gabrielle Forest

From: A collection of different French companies 

The sleaziest movie I’ve ever seen! This infamous French effort has been known by me for ages; it likely was first discovered via a mention on the Rupert Pupkin Speaks blog, it was that long ago. A streaming copy w/ English subtitles wasn’t available, legal or otherwise. In the midst of discovering another way of finding movies in the wilderness that is the Bowels of the Internet (long story) the inspiration was had to finally find a copy and add English subtitles-again, long story.

Brigade sets the tone immediately w/ its opening. Trans prostitutes are shown speaking to potential customers one night. A group of rowdies say the expected offensive comments to them, before a quartet of men in black leather & helmets on a pair of motorcycles guns them down, enormous squibs on their bodies producing plenty of carnage. 

The police are caught in the middle as a gang of rogues are targeting the empire of a drug czar known as The Greek. The storytelling comes across as fuzzy at times but that’s the gist. Gerard is a Vice Squad cop who is a loose cannon & this increases to an amazing degree after his sister is killed then other women he knows are targeted.

Let’s see, this has:
* Gruesome deaths. The finale includes a few that are wild.
* Homophobia. Besides the trans moments, the lead bad guy is a homosexual. You can guess which slur is bandied about more than a few times.
* Innocent people are killed
* Sex/nudity is ever-constant. This includes a threesome of naked people at a club and a literal orgy at a fancy soiree.
* The most noteworthy detail that will make people upset; the vibes of misogyny. Bad things happen to most of the women you see on screen: sexual assault, men beat them up, dudes make offensive comments towards them, and of course, some of them die.

The content of the movie is shocking by 2026 standards. However, those that enjoy trashy movies and are like me and are OK with seeing ultra-sleaze at least once in a blue moon… I never want a steady diet of such pictures but I wasn’t let down after not only viewing a few bad movies in a row, but in addition waiting for years to experience this insanity that made many Italian poliziotteschi flicks look restrained in comparison. Mondo Macabro released Brigade of Death on Blu so thankfully there is an option to legally see the movie-

BTW, the English dub is purportedly putrid so I’m relieved that wasn’t the version I tracked down.

Alone in the Dark

Alone in the Dark (2005)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Uwe Boll

Starring: Christian Slater, Tara Reid, Stephen Dorff, Frank C. Turner, Will Sanderson

From: Several different companies in the United States, Canada, & Germany

It was not the intention to watch another poorly-rated movie; starting tomorrow, I’ll return to a more cheerful disposition & see cinema I actually like. However, a mutual recently mentioned that I should watch “bad movies” more often. Well, I haven’t done this as often in recent years but in the past I once in awhile would watch such tripe as bad old B-movies, more than one effort from the notorious Uwe Boll and even in this decade, I’ve partaken in Madame Web, Cats, and the Ice Cube War of the Worlds-all are indeed rancid.

Unlike my last two reviews, I don’t foresee anyone becoming extraordinarily angry or befuddled why I found Alone in the Dark to be a disaster. Not only do most find the movie terrible, I actually did watch this before, like 20 years ago! So little was retained from the initial viewing, this might as well have been a first-time-watch. Boy, is this barely-based on a videogame picture incredibly bad. It’s irrelevant that none of those games in the franchise have been played, or that I know nothing about the franchise.

The film opens w/ a hilarious, rambling, massive infodump attempting to explain this nonsense plot. Frankly, the details aren’t important; this involves a vanished civilization, the paranormal, portals… things happen, but the viewer won’t give a darn about the scenarios or the characters, unless you get offended at the blatant ripoff of scenes from Aliens like I did. It’s all poorly told, utterly bewildering; I haven’t hated every Boll that’s been tackled but he’s tremendously flawed and most are pretty bad. It was clear why most of the details were long-forgotten.

There’s also an elephant in the room; it’s nice seeing the lead players & I can’t complain about the performances of Christian Slater or Stephen Dorff; I’m glad that both are still acting in films that at least get some sort of theatrical release. However, the decision to cast TARA REID as an archaeologist/museum curator was as absurd as described. That performance wasn’t great and she’ll never be a master thespian but I hate to eviscerate her. I’ve never hated Ms. Reid as there’s been no reason to & I feel bad that she’s had those “personal demons” for years. It was only unintended irony that the CG resembles a 2005 videogame, which is not a compliment.

I’ll be happy to soon forget most of Alone in the Dark again. This does not even have the temerity to be funny-bad like The House of the Dead with all its astounding creative choices. Alone is simply a mind-numbing, unenjoyable experience. Boy, am I now anxious to start watching good cinema again!

I Didn't Like Obsession, Either!

I explain why: 

This is Exhibit A in “Why most horror movies that cinephiles love made this century are massively overrated in my eyes.” Strap in folks, this'll be a long one...

If people weren't mad that I thought the new Masters of the Universe was one of the worst motion pictures I've ever seen, they will at my not even liking Obsession, let alone swooning over how it's "a masterpiece" like everyone else. No one's more disappointed than myself that this is my honest opinion. For context's sake, it has to be noted that while my opinions of modern movies are different from many on Letterboxd, that is especially so when it comes to the horror genre & what's been made in the 21st century.

I'm talking everything from the French Extreme films, Elevated Horror, indie darlings, and all the rest. Plenty I've skipped as there's been no interest. Now, I do rate films like Get Out and The Witch highly. Otherwise, It Follows, Hereditary, The Babadook, The Lighthouse, Talk to Me, Barbarian, the Candyman remake, the other Jordan Peele films-among many others-rate from “fine, I guess” to “mediocre” to “bad.”

Regrettably, what works for most people concerning such motion pictures just does nothing for me. For transparency's sake, the film was watched on Thursday, which was just a piss-poor day in general. Yet, even if the day was great, I got to go on a date with Inde Navarrette, and we attended a screening of this film... my opinion would be the same. The general idea was great-unfortunately, this did not work for me on a fundamental level. “Low-lighting” is one of the many modern cliches in this genre that I thumb my nose at, although that is also an industry-wide problem, as is “plots that make no sense if you apply even a modicum of logic to them,” “shallow focus” and “center-framed.”

Not Charlie Kirk... er, I mean “Bear” being a sad-sack pathetic loser is one thing. The fact that Nikki was his friend/co-worker for years and he was too much of a fraidy-cat to express his feelings is goofy, but I guess that's popular now to have an abhorrent horror protagonist, especially if it's a man. What I detested: the scares coming from Nikki YELLING, staring for seconds on end, sporting a goofy expression, staring for seconds on end while sporting a goofy expression, moving like she's a supernatural creature, the jump-scares, or those unnecessary gross-out moments-I couldn't be more opposed to this decision.

For those thinking that I loathed the constant F-bombs or the cat dying early on-yes, both are just irksome tropes in-what happened with the cat later was extremely unnecessary and I hated the movie the longer it went and the stupider/more unbelievable it became. If this was a short in an anthology-speaking of that, the ONLY good horror anthology made this century is Trick 'R Treat-and derived its scares & tension differently, then I'd probably love this. Perhaps that would also have less editing/continuity issues that stuck out large for me as someone who usually doesn't notice such things...

There are even bigger issues (such as how the female characters were treated) or how surface-level everything was but that'd be spoiler territory that won't be dived into. Obsession is another movie I could write a doctoral thesis about to list all the cardinal problems I had w/ the story and characters. Sigh... I'm still glad a random horror movie featuring an original idea has been such an unexpected hit that at least in the United States is still drawing big crowds and hysterically did better at the box office for a few days than the new STAR WARS movie... I'm glad most critics and fans love it-I just don't get it myself.

I can say that there were some nice subtle moments-there needed to be far more of those-and while the cast was hit or miss w/ me, Ms. Navarrette was by far the highlight. I could have an existential crisis over why June so far has been so crummy, why I've always felt like an outcast, why modern cinema is just so unappealing in totality, or more specifically why critics, the general public, and cinephiles have gone bananas over this film.

Perhaps I shouldn't worry too much, be optimistic that the rest of June will be better, and go back to a previous mindset of being baffled yet not worry about what's “popular” in recent years. After all, ever since I saw a Tweet last year describing the love for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once as “COVID-induced mass hysteria,” it makes me happy that a small segment are happy to be vocal over abominations like that insufferable crap was, no matter what “the masses” believe. Christ, that was much worse than even Obsession.

I'm glad that films like this and Backrooms (something that stands a good chance of eliciting another negative reaction from me) exist and aren't the lame, safe garbage Hollywood has made for far too long. Be that as it may, watching horror from the 20th century is just MUCH more gratifying for my tastes, no matter its flavor-Gothic, giallo, slasher, krimi, supernatural, etc. Sometimes I should just be satisfied that I'm “different” & not like anyone else.

I Saw the New Masters of the Universe So You Don't Have To

To say that I loathed this movie is a massive understatement: 

This is Exhibit A in “What I Don't Like About Modern Movies.”

Yesterday, I saw a pair of movies theatrically; the other one (which will have a take even more controversial than my belief that the new Masters of the Universe is perhaps one of the worst movies I ever saw in a cinema!) really won't make people happy but I have to be honest here. I am not even a He-Man fan; there's really no memories of the 80's cartoon yet the only reason why I even bothered: an early theatrical memory was seeing the 1987 movie with my late mother & two younger sisters. The trailers for the new movie inspired no confidence yet there was no idea the tone would be antithetical to what I wanted in what should have been a rousing adventure where the lead goes on a Hero's Journey to save his land by vanquishing an evil dastardly villain, gaining revenge in the process.

Now, the Dolph Lundgren picture was B-movie trash that was unfortunately hampered by massive budget cuts yet everyone in the cast took the picture seriously, especially Frank Langella as Skeletor, who delivered dialogue you'd hear in a serious stage play yet he made it work.

Unfortunately, yesterday was a bad day in general, so this was the wrong movie on the wrong Thursday for me... I have to be brutally honest even if no one else despised every single second like I did. The reason why I don't view “modern comedies” is because they are as funny to me as a brain tumor; well, this movie is a “modern comedy” first & foremost, yet I did not laugh a SINGLE time despite all the cringe humor, awkward moments, and the movie literally telling everyone that “He-Man” and characters w/ names like "Ram Man" and "Fisto" are stupid and are a source of mockery! No, this happened. I knew I made a grave mistake after the “babbling idiot” narration of the opening, the rancid humor that was especially wretched in the opening act, then Amazon Prime product placement every bit as bad as in Ice Cube's War of the Worlds!

I realize that this franchise began as a Mattel toy line that morphed into an 80's cartoon but talk about insulting the legacy of Roger Sweet, a toy designer who played a critical role in creating that line and just passed away in late April at the age of 91 due to dementia.

Ironically, Jared Leto was the least of this dreck's problems. He spoke in such a goofy voice anyhow, didn't sound anything like him. When there's the other nonsense I've mentioned or will mention and there's blatant, insultingly lazy needle-drop references to MUCH better movies of the past...

I hated this movie as nothing was serious-so who gave a damn about any dramatic stakes? I sure as hell didn't-every character was irritating, a cliché, or an irritating cliché (this includes the emasculated Adam, who was usually an insufferable idiot), the failed “humor” undercut any serious tension, and was fingernails on a chalkboard for over 2, long, miserable hours. I realize the lowest-possible rating is harsh even with something as atrocious as thing. After all, there are some colorful moments, the Daniel Pemberton score was cool, and I'm glad to have seen the pretty Camila Mendes in a movie. Be that as it may, everything else was so irritating, that ruined the film beyond all measure.

The final act was a special kind of disaster; not only was there an utterly baffling sequence so bad I should have walked out of the auditorium then & there... except that I would have missed something only realized after the movie—a secondary battle during the climax had no resolution! Yes, it's possible my brain blacked out during the climax, my hoping that the sweet embrace of Death would take a-hold of me to free me from this putrid film, but I swear this happened. There's no hate on everyone else for liking the movie more than me-that doesn't mean I'm not perplexed as to why.

Perhaps I should be most upset at myself; most modern movies like the new Masters of the Universe that are apparently designed to be Chinese Water Torture for me are successfully avoided. A genial childhood memory should not have influenced what I view at the cinema. At the same time, if THIS is an example of old beloved properties being modernized for modern audiences, I'm still offended as it means that those properties are being dumped on and made fun of, because it's allegedly “cool.”

It seems like at least for the past 20 years there were rumors that there'd be a new Masters of the Universe which would be proper to the franchise and have most of the action on Eternia. What a colossal disappointment that THIS is what we got. Somehow, this is from the CEO of Laika!!!!??? WTF? The highlight of the screening was the trailer for their new film.

Note that this movie is so worthless, that even a postmodern “humorous” catastrophe like this couldn't do better than a lame reference to the HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA meme I didn't even register until after arriving back home! I could write a doctoral thesis on how angry I was at this gigantic waste of time; however, too much's been said already so instead I'll conclude: this makes the 1987 Masters of the Universe look like a Robert Bresson movie!