The best way to spend a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon.......find two old horror movies that somehow you never got around to viewing and watch 'em back to back.....
I've no rational explanation why it took me all these years to catch up with these films.....(especially since this first one came while I was busy buying video store inventory......so let's just dive in.
In The Mouth Of Madness (1994) serves as loving tribute to the forever legendary Cthulu mythology created by horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft.....as well as its own perceptive take on the ability to fictioneers to bend bend reality to their will....(and subtly seduce their readers in the process...)
Director John Carpenter wastes no time getting the horror out of the gate, armed with a script by Michael DeLuca (way more famous as a mega-producer than a writer). Insurance investigator Trent ( Sam Neill, giving it all he's got) shows up at the loony bin, reduced to a babbling madman.
Or is he?
We see his backstory unfold in flashback, when he's tasked by a worried book publisher (Charlton Heston) to track down his best selling author Sutter Cane (the reliably creepy Jergen Prochnow). Cane's a Lovecraft-ian sensation, whose grisly horror novels not only sell in the millions, but they're starting to turn his readers into homicidal maniacs.
Deducing that Cane's book covers reveal a map to the author's mysterious 'Hobbs End' fictional town, off Trent goes with Cane's editor Linda Styles (Julie Cameron)in search of the place.....(and yes, horror trivia fans, they lifted 'Hobbs End' from Hammer's 'Quatermass And The Pit' a.k.a. 'Five Million Years To Earth')
From that point on, reality and illusion (or delusion) bend in every single direction, as Trent and Linda are subjected to countless frights, violent encounters and ghastly sights of Cthulu-like monsters who populate Hobbs End.
Or do they?
Carpenter and DeLuca really sweat bullets to scare you, but the overall effect becomes more like a carnival funhouse ride that whips you around while you flinch at the pop-up skeletons. Which makes it, dare I say.....more of a pure fun experience than a frightful one.
But I can't say I didn't have fun watching it.....3 stars (***).
Evil Dead (2013).....from that title, delivers exactly what it promises.....a take-no-prisoners, gore-soaked, extravagant remake of director Sam Raimi's iconic 1981 The Evil Dead....yes indeed, the bone crushing bloodbath that became a trilogy ("Evil Dead 2", "Army Of Darkness") featuring the ultimate cult hero Bruce Campbell as monster-killer extraordinaire 'Ash'.
And once again, it's about five unlucky young folks chillin' out in a cabin in the woods. That is, until one of 'em finds a book of ancient spells and wakes up a screamin' demon who possesses them into eyeball poppin', gut rippin' loony toons.
And that's all you need to know. You simply sit back, dig into that tub 'o buttered popcorn and watch assorted chopped off limbs go bye-bye while blood and assorted eviscerated organs splatter the walls as if pumped from a firehouse. In short, a gorehound's Shangra-La......
Again, I had the same reaction I experienced with the Carpenter film. Not scared at all, but gleefully entertained. In both films, all the horrors are thrown at you with such frenzied abandon, I could only shake my head and smile at their sheer enthusiasm. It felt like the kid who operates the control level on the funhouse cars, forgot I was still there and sent me through again.......
Special kudos to Jane Levy as the principal victim of the monstrous transformations......I truly couldn't believe this was the same cutie-pie star of the beloved musical series "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist".....this kid looked like Bruce Campbell must've personally trained her to wield a chainsaw.
And with this other 3 star (***) goodie, thus ended my lazy, rainy......and gloriously gory Sunday afternoon......
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