Highway 61 (1991) Director/co-writer Bruce McDonald’s
bizarre odyssey (his style could be described as David Lynch by way of Jim
Jarmusch) is a road trip like no other. Pokey Jones (Don McKellar) is a
socially inept barber living in a small town in Ontario, Canada. His humdrum
life takes an interesting turn when he discovers a dead heavy metal musician in
his backyard, and meets up with Jackie (Valerie Buhagiar), a roadie for the
band. They head south to New Orleans, with coffin in tow, while pursued by a
mysterious man who might be the devil (Earl Pastk). Like any good road trip,
it’s full of weird surprises along the way, accompanied by an eclectic
soundtrack. It also features a host of cool cameos, including Peter Breck and
punk icon Jello Biafra. To describe the myriad twists and turns would spoil
most of the fun. Highway 61 is best
experienced with as little foreknowledge as possible. Note: Big thanks to
Michael Denney (follow him on Twitter at @MichaelWDenney) for recommending this
weird, wonderful little film.
Rating: ****. Available on DVD
Devil Dog: The Hound
of Hell (1978) This 1978 made-for-TV movies starts with a goofy premise,
but has the conviction to follow through. The cast plays it straight
throughout, without resorting to camp, which works to the movie’s advantage. Richard
Crenna and Yvette Mimieux star as Mike and Betty Barry, an ordinary couple in
an ordinary suburban family. After the family dog meets an untimely end, their grief-stricken
kids adopt “Lucky,” a cute German shepherd puppy with an evil streak. Not long
after Lucky enters their household, odd things begin to happen, with tragedy
befalling anyone who gets in his way. Sure, it’s silly, but I dug it. Maybe you
will too. Hammer enthusiasts take note: Martine Beswick appears in the prologue
as the leader of a satanic cult.
Rating: ***. Available on DVD
The Angry Red Planet
(1959) A rocket from an ill-fated Mars mission returns to Earth with half of
the crew missing. The other half isn’t doing so well, either, with Dr. Iris
Ryan (Nora Hayden) clinging to her sanity, and Col. Thomas O'Bannion (Gerald
Mohr) teetering near death. You might think it was a progressive touch on the
part of the filmmakers to include a female astronaut among the crew, but she’s
mainly there to scream and endure sexist remarks from her fellow space
travelers. Most of the story is told in flashback, as the intrepid explorers
encounter hostile flora and fauna on the red planet. In an interesting touch,
the scenes that take place outside the ship on the Martian landscape are tinted
red (pro tip, taken from personal experience: don’t watch this when you have a
headache), but the real highlight is a rat-bat-spider thing that terrorizes the
crew. The basic concept (i.e., astronauts run into malevolent alien forces) has
been recycled numerous times, sometimes to better effect, but it’s interesting
to see one of the earlier examples.
Rating: **½. Available on Blu-ray, DVD and Amazon Prime
Blood Freak (1972)
A drug-addled drifter (Steve Hawkes) eats some experimental poultry and
transforms into a bloodthirsty turkey man (only his head changes). He goes on a
rampage, abducting young women and draining their blood. The best part of the
movie is host Brad F. Grinter (who also directed and co-wrote the film), who
pops in like a low-rent Rod Serling, to comment on what we’re seeing. Was it
all a hallucination? Did anyone really die? Who knows. Blood Freak has some dubious entertainment value; just don’t expect
body horror along the lines of Cronenberg. I’m not sure if this was meant to be
taken seriously or it was intended as a joke (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes), but if you sit through the whole
thing, the joke’s probably on you.
Rating: 2 stars. Available on DVD
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