It’s almost time, kids! The clock is ticking. The month of October is almost dead, but that word means little in this realm because the dead do not always stay that way, even if it’s for the best.
Tonight’s double feature, uh… FEATURES two lords of death who each have very different methods, but still achieve their same dark ends. Now, it’s time to rock the dead.
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
Tonight’s first feature reunites us with our dearly departed horror director, Wes Craven (Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street), for his 1988 occult thriller, The Serpent and the Rainbow.
An adaptation of the nonfiction book of the same name by Wade David, this movie takes the zombie genre back to its Haitian roots, and gives the most realistic example of the ancient practice without making it into a caricature.
It features the late/great Paul Winfield (Sounder, Trouble Man, The Terminator), underappreciated actor Zakes Mokae (Knight Rider, A Rage in Harlem, Outbreak), and the always appreciated Bill “Lonestar” Pullman.
The year is 1985, and Harvard anthropologist, Dennis Alan (Pullman) is sent to Haiti by a pharmaceutical company to investigate the curious case of a Haitian man named Christophe Durand (Conrad Roberts). Christophe allegedly died seven years prior, but returned to life as a zombie.
It’s said that his condition was caused by a mysterious manmade powder that magically turns a person into a member of the walking dead. Ignoring the superstition, and only seeing dollar signs, they’ve also sent him to retrieve a sample of this zombie dust so they can create a new anesthetic.
Dennis arrives in Haiti in the middle of a revolution and confronts Christophe who legitimately believes that’s he’s a zombie, and the only place he belongs is in the graveyard. Treating the “zombie” is Dr. Marielle Duchamp (Cathy Tyson), and she helps Dr. Dennis in his search for the truth.
One that is obviously dark because it lands him in hot water with not only the Tonton Macoutes (which includes getting his scrotum nailed to a chair), but also their chief, Dargent Peytraud (Mokae). He’s a highly-feared voodoo priest, and inventor of the zombie dust. Will Dennis escape the island, or will he find himself buried alive with a poisonous spider???
To me, this was Wes Craven’s last good horror movie. It’s nothing personal, but I just didn’t dig Vampire in Brooklyn, Cursed, Dawson’s Creek with Knives (aka Scream), or the overappreciated New Nightmare, but with that said The People Under the Stairs is a guilty pleasure.
For now, just check out the voodoo that he do on Peacock.
Here’s the trailer:
Phantasm (1979)
That’s right, horror nerds! It’s time to drag a real classic out of its coffin. Because no October marathon would be complete without this enigmatic work of independent art from 1979 by director Don Coscarelli (The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep, John Dies at the End).
On an estimated $300,000 budget that he borrowed from locals, Coscarelli created a film that would become one of the most unique horror films ever, and became the subject of much nerd conjecture in the decades to follow. Phantasm takes dominion over the dead to a whole other level than the last film, and to a place where the balls stab back…
This is the beginning of a very bad journey for a California teen named Mike Pearson (Michael Baldwin). Mike’s older musician brother, Jody (Bill Thornbury), is his legal guardian after their parents died in an accident.
It’s a deep loss that he’s struggling with, and that’s why Jody forbids him from attending the funeral for their friend, Tommy (Bill Cone), but Mike disobeys. Everyone believes that Tommy self-terminated, but they also didn’t watch the opening of this movie to see who murdered him.
It’s the one who creeps on Mike while he’s watching the funeral from afar, The Tall Man (ANGUS SCRIMM!!!). The startled youngster automatically casts a suspicious eye on this eerie apparition that carries the façade of a mortician, and even more so after he sees The Tall Man swing Tommy’s coffin (including Tommy’s corpse) around with only one arm.
Then more people start dying, and more holes are dug in the graveyard. Mike’s suspicions become fact, but that’s when The Tall Man comes for him. This extremely unlucky kid finds himself being chased by flying killer spheres, and dwarf minions. These hooded grotesqueries are the people that the Tall Man has been killing.
He crushes their bodies to ¼ size, puts their brain in a killer sphere, and reanimates the condensed cadaver to be his slave for eternity in his hellish dimension. It’s up to Mike, Jody, and their awesome friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) to stop the Tall Man before he takes the whole world with him.
Have you ever tried to explain this movie to someone who hasn’t seen it, and without getting a blank look from them? Phantasm has been mulled over, analyzed, and dissected by horror fans, but everyone walks away with a different interpretation.
Some see it as a meditation on coping with the reality of death, while others see dreads of the juvenile mind, but nobody has asked Don Coscarelli how much acid he was taking back then. The surreal imagery, and psychedelic terror are a dead giveaway. Phantasm is a fascinating trip that’s also part of the nostalgia for many horror fans.
Even if it’s quirky, and incoherent, one can’t help but admire its originality. One also cant help but admire Mike’s sexy-ass ’71 Plymouth ‘Cuda. Both can be found on TUBI. And here’s the trailer, BOY!!!!
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