Ghoster Than Life

I must admit I have very few memories of that strange entry in the Bill Murray filmography. I saw that thing some 13 years ago, totally unaware of what is was. I just wanted to see it because of the director, Howard Franklin, and the fact i really enjoyed his Public Eye some years before. Sheeeessh. After seeing during the credits that Pen Densham was behind the screenplay, I began to frown. After understanding the D.O.A pitch ( I mean, a man with no career discovered that he inherited an elephant and learns that there's more to life than blahblahblahblahblah), I felt uncomfortable, being afraid of spending the following 100 minutes of suspended animation, disbelief or boredom. Strangely enough, I don't remember anything of that matter. I just don't remember anything. I mean, anything at all. Just that:

a/ it bombed

b/ it killed the Howard Franklin director's career (and Bill Murray's for some years)

c/ out of nowhere, I bought the soundtrack a few days after. I must have listened to it, but I just put it away and totally forgot about it. Poor Miles Goodman. It's only a few days ago that I re-discovered the CD and listened to it.

I still don't remember much of the movie itself (maybe being part of a short-lived -elephant-in-a-movie-craze along with the terrible Operation Dumbo Drop), but if the music aims at the obvious for creating an "musical elephant environment", it's still a very amiable soundtrack and fun to listen to.

Pit Reverse

I was quite flabberghosted when I discovered Roy Ward's Baker opus for the Quatermass serie. Far from the Black and White menace, Baker gave a colourful vision of fright and a taste of Hell. And thanks to the imaginarium of Dr Cary, the electronics sounds and itches seem to come from another world, like a glimpse of uncertainty, a sound of shivering horror, a lurking fear.

Another World? A real prelude to discovery, a vessel for maelstrom, a martian terror, an Apocalypse! a Finale!

And if you ever try to go south, please tread soflty, stranger. You might discover that the flesh is weak in a twist of sand.

The pits, really.

This is My Ghost

Gee wiiiz... no recollection at all from this Ephronite of a movie. I just remember I rented it because of Julie Kavner. God doesn't exist (and even if it did, she would be a black blind lesbian), but Julie Kavner could be her. So funny, even better here as a stand up comedian neglecting her daughters. But wait... I think remember now bits and pieces with Carrie Fisher and Dan Aykroyd... wait... nope. Nothing. Nada. Nichts. Niente.

I must admit (or should I say confess) I bought the CD just because of the Spy Who loved Me song. I didn't know who Carly Simon was, i just loved the voice, the song. So this CD was in the middle of a bargain bin. So... what the heck? I bought it,like, fifteen years ago. 

Listening to it today was a terrible experience. The first notes ring terribly 90's with the awful synthetizers. Carly has a great voice, indeed, but the first two pieces (Love of my life and Back the Way) are on a verge of a crapification . There are ghosts better left buried in my drawers. I just can save Easy on the Eyes. 

... sometimes the 90's were just plain horrible. But as the movie kinda disappeared (and so did Carly Simon), this was time for a tribute. Kinda.

Talgornification

And the Band played on...

There was a time Chris Sarandon had a way with pictures.

 I mean:  Fright Night and Princess Bride. Two 80's classics. Really.

But then came the 90's. Oh, horror. And, as for many, the beginning of  a long walk among nothingness. Then came The Resurrected, a fairly good adaptation of HP Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Too bad this Dan O'Bannon flick came in 1991, at a time where horror movies were disregarded, badly released and condemned to video shelves. M.Sarandon is CD Ward : his handsome face is perfect for the home of madness and seduction. And the horror, oh, the horror in it!

And anyone who'll say Cinema & Lovecraft with immediately think Richard Band for music. And indeed, Dan O'Bannon chose M. Band for a truly haunting score, probable one of his best work to date. Echoes of The Pit and the Pendulum along the way : from the intriguing main title to the Final battle suite, this mix of orchestra and electronic overtones is both seducing and frightening (hear "In the tunnels" for that matter)

Sadly, the movie flopped, the director's cut seems to be lost (the LGF DVD is a cut version my friends), and the movie is remembered by few movie buffs as one of the best Lovecraft adaptation.

Back from the dead with a case of bad teeth

Roger Corman was the first to realize the power of the fallen eastern block in order to wrap up El Cheapo!-El Sleazo! b movies.

In the wake of Coppola's Dracula success (still don't know why -but, hey, let's move on), he decided to produce his own version of some Dracula-like vampire. Next stop : Bulgaria. 

Everlasting plot of a wandering vampire (Christopher Atkins), son of Vlad the Impaler, finding his long lost love in the figure of an american art conservator. If you know/saw Gerard Cicoritti's Central Park Driver, you know what I mean, being basically the same story.

Anyhoo... pretty scenery, good storyline but very poor production (the Hell sequence is Hell-arious!), a good nude underwater sequence... and a director who doesn't seem to handle properly the situation. Too bad.  But an interesting effort overall.

The good part is the music. Ed Tomney, a musician from the Corman stable who worked previously on the disastrous Ultraviolet and Tamra Davis' Guncrazy, delivers more than expected. A truly haunting main theme (Dracula Rising Pt I and Pt II), the mysterious Motet #2 that gives a strange feeling of both fear and seduction. The whole soundtrack is, really, mesmerizing. A true hidden gem of the 90's, worth discovering  and listening over and over.

Bring me that black candle. Now.

Ghosts and Monsters and Zombies and Demons

I can't say the end of the 80's is my favorite period for horror movies. They were tamer, less interesting to watch, painfully directed... the style was gone, the screenplays abysmal... Name one classic horror movie of 1988.

So?

No? Nothing? Nada?Nichts? Zilch? Zapped? Zapped again?

That's my point. Nothing special, just a bunch of straight-to-video products that may have today that 80's patina that is so fun to watch today. But no classic.

One of the last of the true classics is maybe Lamberto Bava's DEMONS, the last gasp of italian horror. Buckets of gore, non-stop action, a helicotper thru the cinema roof, hundreds of flesh-hungry demons, decapitations... you name it, it has it.  It has also, among others, composer Claudio Simonetti. Escaped from the Goblin, he created a fun electronic score. Sadly, he went on doing more or less the same stuff afterwards. There's indeed the fact that the material he had to work with was reaaaaaaaally poor. 

Harry Kirkpatrick's Nightmare Beach, Vittorio Rambaldi's Rage and Ruggero Deodato's Love Threat (a.k.a Dial help) were incredibly poor efforts in the horror/thriller genre. And the soundtrack to each movie sounds like the same. Same electronic variations, same material, same atmosphere. The "worms on the sand" track on Love Threat is exactly identical to one used in Lamberto Bava's Midnight Horror three years earlier. Talk about work.

But for whoever likes (like me) that unmistakable Simonetti's 80's patina, these are gems from another dimension.

Leapin' Leprechaun

After the unexpected success of Leprechaun, Trimark voted for a sequel in 1994. More bucks were thrown into it and Rodney Gibbons (straight from the Corman stable, now an Ugly Betty director) hired to write and direct.

If the results on the screen were an improvment on the first episode, the box office was a disappointment for Trimark. But that didn't stop'em from adding more DTV sequels, where the evil thingy keep on coming back. Even though Lions Gate bought Trimark, they felt there was definitely something. I think the 6th sequel got released in 2007. 

As for the music, the always likeable Jonathan Elias  stepped on. I mean, come on : Children of the Corn, Vamp, Tuff Turf,  Shakedown, Parents, Rude Awakening... these are ALL 80's cheeze classics! The Children of the corn soundtrack always haunted my teenage world. But back to Leprechaun 2. No leaping, please.

The Green Devil got himself a fine music to get along with his evil curses. "Your luck just ran out" said the poster... well not that much. With a electronic soundtrack, an engaging main title mixed with some orchestral flair, Leprechaun 2 is a grrrrrrreat 90's soundtrack . Look out for track n°4 : the leprechaun's bride. I has a strange Madonna flavour à la Erotica. An Erotic Leprechaun? Yipeee. That's a great idea !

Picture this. Ireland. 2008. Warwick Davis engaged in a tender moment with his brand new hip hop victim, escaped from Leprechaun In The Hood.

No. 

Wrong idea.

Music In Reverse

Robot me, Please.

Robot

W@rs

Giant mechanical Scorpio

Dave Allen

Full Moon.

( and a bit of racism towards asians. That what trendy 15 years ago, I guess, but that's just plain ridiculous now. Even in 1993. I mean, Albert, what where you thinking?)

For once, it wasn't Richard Band on the move. But David Arkenstone. I mean, WTF? That obscure master of ambient-rock-new-age-transcendental music a shoe-in for some giant robots combats? Anyhoozle, It did a fine job, after all. Even though it didn't transform (ha-ha) that recycl-O-tron into a cult movie.

Ghost of the Alien Vampire

Back in 1991, there was a neat little sci-fi/horror movie made by a highly underestimated director. 

Movie : The Arrival. 

Director : David Schmoeller

I saw it on video 17 years ago, only attracted by the fact that Richard Band composed the soundtrack. Even though the limited budget allowed very few effects, this highly atmospheric movie is completely original and succeeds at being different. Mixing various themes such as alien invasion, vampire, rejuvenation and even oestrogen-addiction... I mean, damn. What else can you expect from a movie? Just go and rent it. Buy it. Do it. Birds do it. Bees do it.

and, oh, Richard Band composed one of his best scores to date. You can hear some notes of Day Time ended here and there, some of his famous Full Moon effects and many sound effects creating a strange feeling. Somewhere between romance and horror (an i will excuse him for the dreadful 90's flava of "The bar" track. Absolutely horrible. Reminds me of Alan Silvestri having a bad hair day doing No Mercy. Yeech.)

Medicine Man 2

Another Ghost from the Past!

Back in 1997, I entered the Montreal Imax Theater. There was a movie called AMAZON. I didn't know what to expect, as I was kinda bored that snowy day. I just wanted something grand, something different. I figured that such a title could provide what I needed.

Nominated for the Oscars. Narrated by Linda Hunt. But I don't remember a thing 15 years after. Except being bored to death by the movie itself (a kinda moronic Medicine Man 2) but blown away by the images.

And the music composed by Alan Williams. 

At the time, I know that it fitted perfectly the movie. That's what I thought watching it. And I bought the CD asap. 

After all this time, I forgot I had it. I was just searching for something else, and wham-bam-thank you spaceman I found Amazon. Listening to it is an experience indeed, as you can imagine images of the Amazon thru it. I guess that what's the magic is all about. And It kept that power of suggestion after all this time.  Which is not so long ago, I you think about it. But why does it seems like an eternity to me?

I desperatly need a shot of Richard Band. Now.