Pretty deranged

I just learned that Tobe Hooper has died at the age of 74. You might not know who that is, but I'm sure you have heard of his most famous movie: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).

In a sense it's ironic because I intended to talk about a movie tied to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, due to the shared source of inspiration.

Movies like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs and today's feature, are all inspired by or based on, the grave robbing, cannibalistic serial killer; Ed Gein.

Today's feature is Deranged (1974).

I have previously seen this movie, but thought I should re-watch it, and I'm glad I did. It's better than I remembered.

The story in a nutshell concerns Ezra, a man raised by his very old testament mother. When she dies, his mind breaks from loneliness and he starts robbing graves, ultimately graduating to murder.

It would be easy to dismiss this as yet another slasher flick with a killer who has mommy issues, but that would be wrong.

First off, the film actually does a good job of making Ezra more sad than vile. Yes, he is creepy and horrible, but you get to see why and that's important. You can't just dismiss him if you feel even a little bit sorry for him.

Secondly, the violence is toned down a great deal, so that it doesn't overwhelm the atmosphere. You see, the atmosphere is amazing here. The gloomy winter landscape, the dilapidated farm, and the music. The music deserves a mention, as it's ingeniously church music. Hymns without vocals adds the perfect feeling of the influence Ezra's mother still has on him from beyond the grave. Well, the house to be exact. He's a grave robber after all. The gore is muted but the creepy corpses scattered everywhere are all in your face. Keep this in mind if you intend to see this film.

Ultimately, Deranged is not an amazing movie, but it's creepy and realistic, at least more so than it's more famous cousin, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If you think Deranged has gone too far, read a little about what Ed Gein actually did, and you'll quickly realize that this movie has actually toned down a great deal of what happened.

This is an underrated horror movie and no mistake. It does what it does very well, and I'd even go so far as to say horror fans really should see it. Non horror fans should probably give it a miss though, unless watching badly preserved corpses having dinner is your thing.

Until next time, have a wonderful week!

What a weird Monday

So, an hour ago, a guy showed up at my door and filled my bathroom with smoke. Sounds weird, I know but there is a reason for it.
Our downstairs neighbours were apparently getting traces of cigarette smoke in their batkroom, which would indicate that the airvents in the house might have a minor problem. Thus they have to trace how the air moves, etc. etc.

The take away from my bizarre little tale is that I had to get up at an absolutely ungodly hour, just in case. You don't want to be stumbling out of bed at the same time some guy walks through your door, you know?

So as a result, my brain is absolutely hammered, an as you can probably guess, I'm going to cheat a little.

What I have for you today is Scottish stand up comedy:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRIQL4lvIqU

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7BMabEPwVU

Enjoy, and hopefully I can bring you a proper entry next time. Until then, have a great week!

Making crime pay

Hi and welcome back to Eccentric Spheres.

Just a quick one today, as I have a lot to be getting on with.

I stumbled across a documentary about the making of one of my favourite films of all time, Goodfellas, and figured I'd share it with you guys.
But of course, one measly video isn't really enough so I found a couple of others as well, namely The Godfather trilogy and Casino.

Please enjoy, and we'll see wach other again next week!

Goodfellas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bbzUZuxEB8

Casino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ58ukQ2Vcs

Godfather: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuEnjDaiEXQ

Scary ships and spooky cities.

Today we're continuing on last weeks theme of exploring old horror films.

We did four films last time, which I think is a bit too much, so this week we're experimenting with two.

Our number one entry is Death Ship (1980). This small movie stars some pretty famous faces, most notably George Kennedy and Richard Crenna. What we have here, is a pretty typical haunted house story, except it is set on a rusty, creepy ship. I could explain the story, but it's too convoluted and odd. To be honest, the ship is the best part of the movie anyway. It's an underused setting, and it's genuinely spooky. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is weak. I won't say bad, but definitely weak. The horror parts of the script make no sense what so ever, and the characters are pretty bland. One of the characters, a young boy, seems to exists only to go to the bathroom. I'm not kidding people, in a 91 minute film, this kid needs the toilet three times. Was the scriptwriter drunk?

Overall, Death Ship is a middle of the road horror movie. There are many worse out there, but also many better. Worth watching for the theme, or for the sake of completionism. Oh, and don't confuse it with Ghost ship (2002), as that movie is abysmal.

The second entry is Nightmare City (1980), by Umberto Lenzi. In case you're not in the know, Lenzi is one of the big names in Italian horror cinema. So my interest was peaked when I found this. It didn't take very long for my interest to curl up and fall asleep. The biggest flaw in Nightmare City is that it's boring. I won't say it's bad, but if you say so, I won't argue too much.

The story revolves around these zombies, except they're not really zombies. They're people who have been exposed to some sort of radiation, that gives them superhuman strength and endurance. They also desperately need to drink fresh blood, so they're sort of radioactive-vampire-zombie-psychos? Oh, and their faces get all blackened and bloated so that you can tell who's a bad guy. Then, somehow, they infect others, who start killing to get blood, and so on.

This film has three interesting points. 1. It's considered the first movie with rage (or fast) zombies. 2. The rad-zombies use tools and weapons. 3. It's being remade by Tom Savini, the effect maestro. Maybe he can save this train-wreck of a film.

Overall, watch this film only from an academic film history point of view.

That's it for this time. With any luck I'll have some good movies for you soon. We're going to have to see, won't we? Until then, have a great week!