■ Forgotten film
Odd, non-classic films have
quality entertainment value
Horror films that trumpet over-the-top gory imagery
are meant to scare viewers, hut induce laughing instead
BY RYAN NYBURG
PULSE EDITOR
The Forgotten Films feature is
usually a way for the writer to in
form readers about a movie that has
been undeservedly lost in the sands
of time. But this time I’ve decided to
do something a little different,
namely inform the readers about
any old crap that 1 think they should
see. And since one great film is
worth four bad ones, I’ve decided to
offer critiques of four movies rather
than one. While none of these films
are classics, they do possess oodles
of entertainment value, which is
more than you can say for plenty of
the cinematic offerings out there to
day. Most of these films also have
some further cultural significance
worth touching on. Some of them
are just worth mentioning anyway.
To start things off, we have “The
House on Haunted Hill.” Not to be
confused with the soulless 1999 re
make, the original 1959 film stars Vin
cent Price as the owner of a creepy
ass house. He offers a group of people
$10,000 apiece if they’ll spend the
night in the place. The doors and win
dows are sealed shut until daylight
and the guests wait out the night.
Everything is mildly spooky until the
owner’s wife is found hanging from a
rafter. Directed by William Castle, one
of the great schlock purveyors of the
1950s, the film is full of comically
macabre imagery. (My personal fave
is when Price presents each of his
guests with a coffin-shaped box con
taining their own pistol.)
The film is enjoyable due to its
over-the-top attempts to scare peo
ple, and it contains some of the most
delightfully absurd dialogue ever
found in a horror film.
At one point Price says to his wife,
“Remember that time you poisoned
me with arsenic? What fun we had.”
If you’re in the market for a DVD
of this, 1 would recommend the 2001
Diamond Entertainment release.
Though that company is not known
for its quality transfers, this edition
actually looks great and is doubled
up with another Price film, 1964’s
“The Last Man on Earth.”
Now if you want to know what
BOYS!
FIG8? BACK.. .BITE BACK WITH OfiACUU FANGS!
GIRLS!
. defend wwm wmi zombie eybi
GET YOURS FREE
AS YOU ENTER THE THEATRE!
Courtesy
'The Plague of the Zombies’ is a slow-paced but effective film,
can make a bad film endlessly enter
taining, this next movie is the one to
check out. Released in 1968 by Eng
land’s Hammer film studios, “The
Lost Continent” begins with a plot
about a ship lost at sea that ends up
trapped in a bizarre island dominat
ed by man-eating seaweed, the sur
vivors of other lost ships and a
plethora of vicious, giant puppets.
The plot takes so many twists and
turns that it often seems as if the
screenwriter is just free associating.
The surreal atmosphere of the pro
duction adds to the bizarre tone of
the film, and all of it feels like two or
three movies were involved in a
near-fatal collision.
For this film, 1 would suggest pick
ing up the Hammer Collection edi
tion put out by Anchor Bay Enter
tainment. The main assets of this
version are the Technicolor print and
its paring with another Hammer
classic, 1966’s “The Reptile.”
While we’re on the subject of Ham
mer, another good one to check out is
“The Plague of the Zombies," also re
leased in 1966. The story concerns a
doctor in a small English town who
has to deal with a series of mysterious
deaths. Enlisting the help of his men
tor, the two doctors discover that the
deaths are being caused by the town’s
overlord, who is resurrecting the bod
ies with voodoo rites and using them
to run a nickel mine underneath the
city. Though the film is slowly placed,
it makes up for it with pure atmos
phere and mood, occasionally coming
up with some genuinely ghastly mo
ments. Once again I would suggest
the Hammer Collection version of the
film, which is remastered well.
Speaking of zombies, the last film
on the list is 1932’s “White Zombie.”
Best known for being the namesake of
Rob Zombie’s old band, the film stars
Bela Lugosi as a witch doctor who
uses zombie slave labor in Haiti. He is
asked by a jealous man to take control
of another man’s fiance. Disgusted by
the woman’s emotionless state, the
man asks Lugosi to change her back,
but is instead turned into a zombie
himself. You can probably pick it up
from there. The film is actually the
first cinematic attempt to deal with
the subject of zombies and has some
oddly gothic moments. The set design
(the matte paintings are really incredi
ble) and the production are all top
notch for the time, but the film suffers
from pacing problems. It’s still worth
checking out.
The original print of the film disin
tegrated decades ago, so decent
copies of this are hard to find. 1 would
suggest the 1999 Roan Group release,
which is the best version available
and has some nice extra features. If
quality isn’t too much of a concern,
pick up the 2002 Madacy Entertain
ment edition. In exchange for quality
you get two other hard to find Lugosi
films, 1942’s “The Corpse Vanishes”
and 1947’s “Scared to Death.”
ryannybu.rg@dailyememld.com
IN BRIEF
'Shrek 2' lives happily ever
after at the top of the charts
Any cartoon that can squeeze in
songs from such dark souls as Tom
Waits and Nick Cave is all right by
us. In case you've been living in a
swamp the past year, 2004's top
grossing hit reunites the vocal tal
ents of Mike Myers and Cameron
Diaz as newlywed ogres and Eddie
Murphy as their donkey pal in a not
so-happily-ever-after animated fol
low-up. DVD featurettes have some
lighthearted cast interviews, along
with the directors and their technical
crew discussing techniques used to
bring more lifelike qualities to the
computer-generated characters.
'Dr. Strangelove': Nuclear
paranoia 40 years later
Forty years later, they’re still
fighting in the war room. Stanley
Kubrick's 1964 black-comedy
masterpiece gets yet another DVD
makeover with a two-disc 40th
anniversary edition. Peter Sellers
leads the cast with three key roles in
the nuclear-doomsday farce, co-star
ring George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
and Slim Pickens. Among new DVD
extras are a Sellers retrospective, a
documentary about the nuclear
paranoia of the era, an essay on the
film by critic Roger Ebert and an inter
view with Robert S. McNamara, de
fense secretary for Lyndon Johnson.
— The Associated Press
f
Hell
That
Time
Forgot!
SEE!
BLOOD-BEASTS
battling over
female flesh I
TORTURE PITS for
forbidden lovers!
SACRIFICE to giant
jaw-snapping
mollusks!
ESCAPE from
floating death ship I
BEAUTIES
attacked by
crazed
kelp-monsters!
FIERY
DESTRUCTION
of the
Lost
Continent!
mu %
HIlDfGARD mmk
UMiY
BIWTO
IKK
D
MICHAR MtCMAEL
s,m-M
kins wern l
jimmy EsxstwjaKji
Color by Oe Luxe
x stvtN Mti-Mtttt wococnoK
Courtesy
The Hammer classic 'The Lost Continent’ combines bizarre imagery with an im
plausible script to make an interesting, oddball adventure film.
QiMnonin
IIIIUISUIU
MflJHGE. flEU. niUIflB. ORIGIDRL BESIGIB. HOT. flEU
BUS. SELL ME. fi-SH 12-1. 1016 UlLLfiflEUE. 541.6811511
C«»a Burrer
1525 Franklin Blvd.
Eugene, OR 97402
541-343-2828
11:30am-9:00pm Daily
Next to Campus
ALL YOU CAN EAT
(every night $7.99 includes
drink and ice cream)
come eat buffet-style or order to go
Szechwan and Mandarin
dishes to choose from
The Best
Coffee
In Town