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GHOST WARRIOR - SUBMITTED BY REDGUTS
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DEATH WEEKEND
REVIEW OF DEATH WEEKEND - FROM CANUXPLOITATION.COM
(AKA The House by the Lake) 1976, Starring Brenda Vaccaro, Don Stroud, Chuck Shamata, Richard Ayres. Directed by William Fruet.
From the beginning of his professional career, Canadian director William Fruet was shaping up to one of the more recognizable talents in the Canadian film industry. Besides penning the scripts for award-winning Canadian films including Goin' Down the Road and Slipstream, Fruet also found time to direct Wedding in White, a celebrated drama about prairie life during the depression. By the late 1970s, though, Fruet found himself churning out a string of CBC dramas, and looking for a way to break back into the world of Canadian film. Eventually, he hooked up with Ivan Retiman and Don Carmody, two producers who had just finished releasing David Cronenberg's Shivers through Cinepix. With their help, he surprised everyone by directing Death Weekend, a rural revenge film starring Don Stroud as a vile hoodlum terrorizing a vacationing couple.
Just as Canadian film critics were unmerciful to Cronenberg's collaboration with Reitman and Carmody, they quickly turned their collective backs on Fruet as well, branding him as some sort of traitor. Death Weekend received less than flattering reviews, but Reitman used the relationship he established with American drive-in distributor AIP to get the film a release state-side. AIP renamed the film The House by the Lake, and paired it up with Last House on the Left, Wes Craven's huge commercial grindhouse success from 1972. It was a popular all-female revenge double-bill.
Regardless of the immediate reaction to the film, Death Weekend remains one of the most infamous Canadian films of the 1970s, as well as one of Fruet's best. It's relative obscurity has done nothing but bolster it's reputation among previously viewed bin junkies, and this honour is well deserved, because Death Weekend is a competently made suspense film that is even based on a true Canadian story.
In his flashy new convertible, Harold the dentist is headed for a weekend party at his summer home with young model Diane (Brenda Vaccaro). When she convinces him to let her drive for awhile, four toughs in another car pull up beside them and try to start a drag race. Diane ignores them, and takes off in another direction. Driver and spokesperson for his mulleted crew, Lep (Stroud) won't let himself be out-driven by a woman, so he takes off in pursuit leading to a lengthy, but exciting, backroads race. When Lep accidently swerves off the road, his car drops several feet down into a creek, effectively ending the excitement. Angered, Lep vows revenge on Diane.
Harold takes over the driving duties and pulls into a gas station where he leaves his convertible in the care of two backwoods yokels in exchange for some moonshine. They climb into a station wagon and once again drive away. Harold's vacation house turns out to be a private lakefront mansion, and he quickly shows Diane around. It soon becomes obvious that Harold is obsessed with his money, and gleefully shows off his expensive possessions to her before escorting her to her bedroom. Then, he sneaks into a nearby room, where he takes pictures of Diane changing through a two-way mirror he has installed.
Meanwhile, Lep and his cronies Frankie, Stan and Runt have been driving around northern Ontario cottage country with their eyes peeled for the convertible. Finally seeing it parked at the gas station, Lep tricks the hicks into telling them where they can find Harold. They speed away to ruin a romantic weekend.
If they would have known what was going on at the house, they might not have bothered, because Harold is doing a pretty good job of screwing things up himself. Out on the boat, Harold casually asks Diane to pose for some naked pictures, and when she refuses he gets angry and tells her that there is no party planned— it's just them alone all weekend. When they arrive back at shore, Diane is livid that he tried to trick her. She is about to pack up and leave, but her anger turns to confusion when they find Lep and his buddies sitting in the living room of the house. Lep demands money to pay for car repairs, and a nervous Harold hands over a wad and implores them to leave. Seeing that Harold is living in style, Lep decides that he wants more money, and tells Harold that he and his friends will be staying for the entire weekend.
Harold's uninvited guests quickly dip into the booze, and decide to take the boat out for a spin. Watching them from on shore, Diane pleads with Harold to be a man and get rid of them, and he tells her that he has a shotgun hidden at the house. Back on shore, Lep tries to convince Harold to rape her, but when he refuses, Lep goes after Diane all by himself. After a surprising rape scene, Lep realizes that his efforts to scare Harold aren't working— the ritzy house means more to the playboy dentist than anything else. In his blind desire to destroy Harold, Lep begins wrecking the house and the others get in on the act with baseball bats and sledgehammers. As Lep guessed, this finally drives Harold over the edge and sends him running upstairs to get the shotgun. Lep is right there though, and easily turns the tables by stealing the gun out of Harold's hands and chasing him out the door with it, leaving Lep's three neanderthal friends alone with Diane. When Runt tries to rape her himself, Diane conceals a shard of broken glass in her hand and vows to get her revenge.
Like all of the Canadian rural revenge films, Death Weekend wears it's influences on it's sleeve, but the top-notch acting by Brenda Vaccaro and the unbearably villainous Don Stroud make this film an original and memorable experience. In fact, Death Weekend was quite likely an influence on one of the most notorious female revenge films of all time, I Spit on Your Grave.
Fruet's previous work as a scriptwriter for Don Shebib is evident in the fully-developed characters that appear in this film. While they certainly couldn't be classified as the stereotypical " impotent males" of Canadian film, they are all loathsome in their own right. From the hoodlums who get their kicks from terrorizing innocent women to the playboy who sees the woman as a disposable possession, these socially maladjusted men come from opposite sides of the railroad tracks, but may have more in common that they would like to think.
Like Straw Dogs, Death Weekend downplays the sleaziness and concentrates on creating atmosphere and tension. That isn't to say that there aren't exploitive scenes in the film, but Fruet handles them expertly, and keeps the film fully concentrated on the ideas of male power and insecurity at hand. The result is that Death Weekend is an underrated Canadian thriller capable of surprising even the most jaded sleaze-hound.
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DR. SEUSS : GRINCH NIGHT
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THREE HEADED MONSTER
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CHINESE CONNECTION - SUBMITTED BY VINCENT KAVAKO
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THE SLAYER
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THE DARK CRYSTAL
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TYSON VS SPINKS : ONCE AND FOR ALL
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SATANS SUPPER
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THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN - SUBMITTED BY GEMIE FORD
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LORDS OF THE RING : SUPERSTARS AND SUPERBOUTS
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PSYCHO FROM TEXAS
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MARCH 9 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : DEATH SHIP (1980)
I love movies that take place on haunted ships (GHOST SHIP [2002] notwithstanding). Maybe it's because of the feeling of isolation the viewer gets; being trapped in the middle of the ocean, hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from the nearest dry land and at the mercy of a derelict ghost ship that wants nothing more than to make sure that your soul stays on board for all eternity. I mean, really, what choices do you have when trapped on a death ship? Most of the time in these films, the radio is on the fritz, all the lifeboats are gone and food and drinkable water are at a minimum, so your only real choices are to fight the evil and hope to God that you win (which usually means that you'll be rescued by a passing ship) or just give up and jump overboard, where you will tread water for as long as you can and then eventually drown or get eaten by a shark. Face it, being trapped on a ghost ship sucks and the odds are stacked against you. Which brings us to DEATH SHIP, one of the first modern-day haunted ship films to mix that dreaded feeling of isolation with scenes of bloody gore. George Kennedy (DEMONWARP - 1987) is cruise ship Captain Ashland, who is on his final voyage (he retires in three days) and showing the ropes to the next ship's captain, Trevor Marshall (Richard Crenna; LEVIATHAN - 1989). Captain Ashland is a bitter, bitter man who shows nothing but disdain to both crew and passengers and hates the thought of forced retirement (One of his crew members says, "Bastard! Thank God this will be his last trip."). Trevor's wife, Margaret (Sally Ann Howes) and their two young children, Robin (Jennifer McKinney) and Ben (Danny Higham), are also on-board the cruise ship to celebrate his promotion. He should have left his family at home. A ghost ship appears out of nowhere on radar and rams the cruise ship, sinking it and leaving Trevor and his family, deck hand Nick (Nick Mancuso; RAPID FIRE - 1992), passengers Sylvia (Kate Reid; PLAGUE - 1978) and Lori (Victoria Burgoyne), Master of Ceremonies Jackie (Saul Rubinek; TRUE ROMANCE - 1993) and an injured Captain Ashland as the only survivors. After spending several days floating in the sweltering sun, the ghost ship suddenly appears next to them, anchored and not moving. They all board the floating rust bucket, but the ship tries to kill Trevor, Nick and Captain Ashland before they even set foot on-board (a quick-thinking Trevor saves the day). Jackie is the first casualty when the ship snares his leg on a rope and drops him overboard, where the ship's spinning propellers grind him to pieces. The ship, which is a German WW II frigate that had a Nazi crew, possesses the vulnerable Captain Ashland (Hey, he gets to captain another ship!), while the rest of the survivors search the ship for food dry clothes and other signs of life. German voices in Captain Ashland's head tell him that this is now "his ship", so he begins killing the survivors, beginning with Sylvia (who breaks out in facial pustules after eating a peppermint candy she found in a cupboard), whom he strangles when no one else is around and blames her sudden death on "a seizure". The Captain's obsessive behavior (he now dresses in a German Captain's uniform!) troubles Trevor (When he asks Captain Ashland, "Where do you plan to sail her?", Ashland replies, "Eternity, Marshall. Eternity!" Oh boy, this does not sound good at all.), so he tries to take control of the ship from Ashland, but the ship won't let him. As Ashland bellows "No one leaves my ship!", Trevor and his family, now the only living survivors remaining, try to do just that, but will they be successful? Although it takes a while to get cooking, the Canadian-financed DEATH SHIP does have its share of creepy moments and atmospheric sequences, but it is nearly ruined by the stupid antics of pint-sized Ben, who always has to pee (He should see a doctor about it!) or runs-off at the worst times possible. I wanted to punch the little snot squarely in the face on more than one occasion. Director Alvin Rakoff (KING SOLOMON'S TREASURE - 1977; CITY ON FIRE - 1979) and screenwriter John Robins (better known as one of the producers of THE BENNY HILL SHOW!) save most of the gruesome stuff for the film's final third, such as the discovery that this was actually a German "interrogation" ship and it is littered with the bodies of Jewish victims (Nick finds out the hard way when Captain Ashland throws him in one of the ship's bilge wells and he lands on a net full of rotting Jewish corpses); Lori takes a blood shower (gratuitous full-frontal nudity alert!) before being tossed overboard by a possessed Ashland; there's a freezer full of frozen corpses of the ship's original crew; Nick claws his way through the walls of the ship's movie viewing cabin while Nazi propaganda films are projected on his body (this is a nicely-filmed sequence and my favorite part of the film); and George Kennedy overacts to the point where he almost becomes a parody of himself (Listen to his line readings of "Blood! This ship needs blood to survive!" for proof of Kennedy taking the film to dizzying new heights). What more could you ask for? Grant Page (STUNT ROCK - 1978) was Stunt Coordinator here and genre director Jack Hill (THE BIG BIRD CAGE - 1972) is credited with co-writing the story. Originally released on VHS by Embassy Home Entertainment and while it is not available on a legitimate U.S. DVD, there are German and British DVDs available for purchase from on-line retailers like Amazon. Rated R. { text from critcononline.com }
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