Simon, King of the Witches (1971)

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The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)

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The Hearse (1980)

There is a door between life and death and now, that door is open! 

The Hearse

I usually recommend that people watch every movie that I review, but this may be the exception.  The Hearse is just a bad movie and not in a so-bad-it's-good sort of way, as so many of the films that Zoltan and I review are.  It's boring, predictable and riddled with ghost story clichés like slamming doors and reflections of dead relatives in mirrors.  Also, most of the performances are sub-par and the the leading lady (Trish Van Devere) has all the charisma of a hemorrhoid.  She's supposed to be an attractive young woman and all the townsfolk refer to her as "that pretty city girl," yet she looks like she's about 40 and is average at best.  She's supposed to be fit and limber as well, yet during a scene where she's awkwardly stretching before a run, it looks like her lower back seizes up on her.  Then when she finally gets to stretch her legs and "run" she shambles along as if she's bound at the ankles with invisible shackles.  She's the oldest and most nonathletic "athletic girl" I think I've ever seen.

And to add insult to injury, there's hardly any violence and not one booby sighting in the whole film - not that I'd want to see this hag topless anyway.  And I mean no disrespect to George C. Scott who married the woman.  I'm sure she's a lovely person, she just isn't believable as an object of desire.  The only redeeming factor of this travesty known as The Hearse is that for a few brief moments we get to see a young and arrogant Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) of Happy Gilmore fame.

"Ouch, my bunions!"

And now the plot.  A recently divorced woman moves from the big city into her dead aunt's house in an isolated, xenophobic community.  She discovers her aunt's diary which tells of a love interest and a conversion to Satanism (I guess the two go hand in hand).  The people of the town hate Jane (Van Devere) because her aunt worshiped Lucifer, and nobody will come near the house because they think it's haunted.  Jane starts seeing weird shit and having nightmares and is often followed by an old hearse driven by a disfigured and moustachioed gentleman.  Anyway, Jane begins a romance with a mysterious fellow and things go bad.

If you want to see an excellent supernatural horror with Trish Van Devere and her husband George C. Scott, watch The Changeling (1980).  If you want to see a crazy, so-bizarre-it's-good haunted house movie, watch the Japanese film Hausu (1977).  If you're eight years old and your parents won't let you see scary movies or films with blood and/or boobies, watch The Hearse.

Violence Rating: 1 out of 5
Booby Rating: 1 out of 5

Get The Hearse as part of  
Drive-In Cult Classics Volume 2 
at TLACult.com

Snake Woman's Curse (1968)

From the director of Jigoku comes a perverse classic of Japanese horror!

Snake Woman's Curse

I know that many visitors to this site (not that there are that many visitors) like the campy or so-bad-they're-good movies that I write about here.  Obviously I like those movies too, but Nobuo Nakagawa's Snake Woman's Curse or Kaidan hebi-onna is not one of those films.  It's not cheesy in any way.  It's just a really good movie.  It's a tale of supernatural horror, a Japanese ghost story about karmic retribution and it features one of my favorite ladies from the pinky violence films, Yukie Kagawa.

During the modernization of Japan during the Meiji Restoration, a traditional farmer is indebted to a wealthy, self-centered (which is not a good thing in a Buddhist inspired ghost story) landowner.  Unable to pay off his debt, the old farmer works himself to the point of exhaustion, has a heart attack and dies.  His wife and daughter are then forced into the service and household of this dickish landowner and his even more dickish son.

The two women are treated as slaves in this new arrangement and the mother faces physical abuse by the landlord while the daughter faces the sexual advances of his son.  A snake is discovered in the house on a day that a special visitor is expected to arrive.  This is a bad omen and it must be killed.  The mother tries to save the snake's life and is thrown to the ground for her troubles.  She  hits her head and later dies from her injuries.

The daughter is tricked into walking alone along a deserted road where she is chased down and raped by the landlord's son.  The sexual assaults continue back at the estate and when she can take no more, she takes her own life.  Then the haunting starts.  The deceased members of the poor farming family cause the members of the wealthy, dickish family to hallucinate and eventually go insane.

Snake Woman's Curse is a beautiful, haunting, atmospheric film.  Most of the violence is done off camera and is left to the viewer's imagination, which I liked, and one genuinely feels compassion for these poor Japanese farmers who suffer at the hands of a "higher class" of people.  I know it won't appeal to everyone, but I think it's an excellent film.

Violence Rating:  2 out of 5
Booby Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Buy Snake Woman's Curse at TLACult.com


 
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