Four horror films and a western.

Sounds like a great night in.

Mackenna’s Gold (1969)

Who’s in it?

Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Julie Newmar

What’s it about?

Marshal MacKenna (Peck) chances upon a map to a legendary treasure, and burns it after committing it to memory. A motley collection of outlaws, Apaches, traitors, and nefarious ne’er-do-wells coerce MacKenna into leading them to the hidden valley where the riches are rumoured to be, but infighting, jealousy, and greed soon thins out the gang. Will MacKenna make it out alive?

Why do I love it?

This is one of those movies that I watched at far too early an age, remembered in foggily exaggerated segments, and was finally reunited with a couple of decades later. The images that had taken up residence in my underdeveloped noggin were mostly of large rocks, and one particularly important needle rock, but the nightmare image that stayed with me was of an old man, Old Adams (played by Edward G. Robinson), wandering in the middle of an Apache ambush, his white, sightless eyes front and centre, until he is felled by a tomahawk in the spine. For some reason this image haunted me for many years (much like Satan’s eyes in Rosemary’s Baby (1968), which I also accidentally saw too young), and it was rather cathartic to finally see it again around 15 years ago.

I had forgotten, however, just how good the film is. The stacked cast gives it 110%, even the misplaced Telly Savalas and, while acknowledging the inappropriateness of their casting, Ted Cassidy and Julie Newmar are formidable and ridiculously hot (in that order) as Apache members of Sharif’s gang. I might not have appreciated Newmar’s sauciness as a young boy, but I certainly appreciate her now, as a sad old man.

Night of the Demon (1957)

Who’s in it?

Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurice Denham

What’s it about?

Dr. John Holden (Andrews), an American scholar of the occult, arrives in London to meet Professor Harrington (Denham), a colleague on the verge of exposing the cult of Satanist Dr. Julian Karswell (MacGuinnis). Unfortunately, Harrington has come to a gruesome end the previous night, and Holden must join forces with Harrington’s niece, Joanna (Cummins) to get to the bottom of her uncle’s supernatural death. When Holden himself is cursed by Karswell using demonic runes, he faces a race against time to save himself from the claws of a monstrous entity.

Why do I love it?

Despite an American leading man, this still feels like a quintessentially British film (much like Gorgo (1961), who should be on this list) complete with staid libraries, spooky woods, and steam trains. This is one of those films that I feel is a flawed masterpiece, for a reason I’ll come to later (but I’m sure you’ve guessed), and the stark cinematography of Ted Scaife has been echoed for decades in other films hoping to emulate the sense of impending doom so beautifully portrayed in this film.

The idea of a relentless force of evil is possibly my favourite theme in horror films, rising a couple of decades later in the form of Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees, right up to more modern interpretations such as Sam Raimi’s take on the ‘passing of the curse’ in Drag Me to Hell (2009). Where my enthusiasm wanes however, is the outcome of a kerfuffle between director Jacques Tourneur and producer Hal E. Chester over the inclusion of the demon at the beginning and end of the film. Chester won out, and I’m still mad that Tourneur wasn’t allowed to merely ‘suggest’ the demonic force instead of being blindsided by a snippet of puppet footage that was shot without his knowing. Oh well.

Theatre of Blood (1973)

Who’s in it?

Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Ian Hendry, Harry Andrews

What’s it about?

Edward Lionheart (Price), the hammiest actor this side of Hamburg, survives a suicide attempt after a savage critique of his latest Shakespearean production. Once the dust has settled, Lionheart, aided by his beloved daughter, Edwina (Rigg), and a shady, Jeff Lynne-type henchman, proceeds to bump off each and every theatre critic who besmirched his good name. He does this in a variety of ghastly ways, each murder prompted by specific scenes from Shakespeare’s best known plays. As the inept police force tries to catch up with him, it is up to one critic, Peregrine Devlin (Hendry) to try to put a stop to the madness.

Why do I love it?

Don’t get me wrong, the Dr. Phibes films are classics and among my favourite horrors, but when it comes to vengeful maniacs killing a group of people in increasingly elaborate ways according to a theme, Theater of Blood is the one I return to time and time again. By this point, Price was at the height of his campy, self-aware game, and yet never phoned in a performance, playing every twisted character with a perverse reverence; whether he is the over-blown Lionheart murdering Shakespeare’s lines with wild aplomb, an outrageously gay hairdresser with an afro to die for, or a grotesque French chef, stuffing Robert Morley’s ‘babies’ down his wobbling gullet.

Part of the joy of these sorts of films is being given clues as to what’s to come, and then letting us figure out just how the critics are going to be offed according to the plays’ titles. Rigg gets to stretch her acting chops in a couple of roles and is a gorgeous foil to Ian Hendry’s reliable, but ultimately inept, heroic critic. Just a blast. Ripe for a remake too.

Angel Heart (1987)

Who’s in it?

Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling

What’s it about?

When private detective Harry Angel (Rourke) is hired by rich client Louis Cypher (De Niro) to find a missing crooner called Johnny Favorite, he is drawn into a nightmare that spans the seedy back alleys of New York and the sweaty shadows of New Orleans, being dragged ever closer to his own demise. Complicated family issues entwine with old-time voodoo, blues numbers, chickens, boiled eggs, and the devil himself, as each new clue Harry unearths merely speeds up his own burial.

Why do I love it?

Another one much like previous entry Night of the Demon in which a single shot at the end threatens to derail the entire film, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but first let us wallow in the steamy, smoke-filled, sweat-stained paranoia of a tattered gumshoe going about his business in his methodical, bourbon-fuelled manner.

This is Rourke’s best performance in anything, and his transition from world-weary to broken and condemned is hypnotic. Michael Seresin’s photography is stunning, all muted hues and deep crimson, and I have always been saddened that director Alan Parker essentially disowned it following a butchering by the producers in the editing room. Repeat viewings are a must with Angel Heart. The dialogue is extremely wicked, with characters often saying throwaway lines that predict their own, or others’, demise, and the use of limited colours and excessive shadows guide the viewer’s eye from one unsettling image to another.

As alluded to, this is not a perfect film, and I really dislike the unnecessary glowing yellow eyes on a couple of characters at the end, but it’s a small quibble. Also, one of my top three OST albums — utterly terrifying to listen to in a dark room.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Who’s in it?

Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Ben Chapman, Ricou Browning

What’s it about?

Ichthyologist Dr. David Reed (Carlson), meets an old acquaintance, Dr. Carl Maia, at a California Aquarium. Maia shows him a fossilized hand, which seems to be a fish/human hybrid, and convinces him to join him on (and fund) an expedition to search for the remainder of the skeleton. They join the crew of an Amazonian river boat, Rita, captained by Capt. Lucas, alongside his crew and Reed’s girlfriend, Kay Lawrence (Adams), where they steam up river and into the lagoon where the bones were found.

Unbeknownst to them, they are being watched by a living relative of the suspected hominid, a slippery, lovelorn gillman, and it isn’t long before the creature has made sushi of some of the crew and made off with Kay. Can Reed find his girlfriend and survive the wrath of his fishy foe?

Why do I love it?

You never forget your first, and Creature was my first Universal Horror film. Despite watching the rest of the studio catalogue, The Creature from the Black Lagoon has remained my favourite, and I can’t really explain why. Possibly it’s my love for the misunderstood, the hopeless romantic, the grouchy ‘get off my lawn’ type of characters that draws me back to it time and time again.

Maybe it’s the timeless beauty of Julia Adams, a relatable reason for Gillman’s infatuation, or perhaps it’s just Gill himself, one of the greatest monster designs ever put on screen. If you get a chance, I urge you to read The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara, which chronicles the life of Millicent Patrick, the designer of the costume, who was erased from Hollywood history for the crime of being female.

I doubled down on my love for this film around five years ago. A local cinema was showing a restored, 3D print of the film so I took myself off to it and had the loveliest time, surrounded by likeminded types, and then I secured Ricou Browning’s autograph a short while before his death (unrelated). Now, as I type this, I am being watched by my deluxe Meca black and white edition Gillman, and thinking about comfortable bathing suits in the jungle. Ahh, bliss.

Previous Murky Movie surveys from Neil Baker include:

My Top Thirty Films, Part 1
My Top Thirty Films, Part 2
My Top Thirty Films, Part 3
My Top Thirty Films, Part 4
The Star Warses
Just When You Thought It Was Safe
Tech Tok
The Weyland-Yutaniverse
Foreign Bodies
Mummy Issues
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Monster Mayhem
It’s All Rather Hit-or-Mythos
You Can’t Handle the Tooth
Tubi Dive
What Possessed You?

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See all of Neil Baker’s Black Gate film reviews here. Neil spends his days watching dodgy movies, most of them terrible, in the hope that you might be inspired to watch them too. He is often asked why he doesn’t watch ‘proper’ films, and he honestly doesn’t have a good answer. He is an author, illustrator, teacher, and sculptor of turtle exhibits.