DailyView: Day 327, Movie 469

Based on a 1971 novel, Hell House by Richard Matheson (who was the screenwriter on this as well), The Legend of Hell House became one of the more iconic films of the “haunted house” subgenre of horror films. Directed by British director John Hough, the film featured a cast including Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowell, Clive Revill and Gayle Hunnicutt.

A group of investigators including psychic mediums were sent into the Belasco House, a location where a group of investigators had been killed 20 years before. The only survivor of that group was Benjamin Franklin “Ben” Fischer (Roddy McDowell), who accompanied physicist Dr. Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill), his wife Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt) and mental medium Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) back into the Belasco House in an attempt to finally put the spirits inside to rest.

I had a little difficulty getting into the film at first, but after awhile, I was engaged and was enjoying myself. The main reason was the exceptional Roddy McDowell. McDowell is an iconic horror movie star, fitting right into this type of film beautifully. Roddy’s work elevated those around him and made me interested in the story of the film.

This was 1973, so some of the special effects were less than what we are used to in 2022. That is understandable, but the whole cat stuff was really weak and looked terrible. The rest of the film looked considerably better.

There are some well done creepy moments in the movie and the story is well done. It was simple enough without being too easy. It is well developed and the performances work within the story very well. The Legend of Hell House is one of the better haunted house films you will find.

DailyView: Day 326, Movie 468

I have to say, after watching Ghostwatch, I am quite unnerved and have a tightness in the pit of my stomach. I can’t imagine watching this live on the BBC and not knowing that it was a piece of ficiton.

Broadcast originally on Halloween night, 1992, the mockumentary style live film was filmed weeks before, but the audience was not fully aware of the situation and it reportedly caused quite a furor with viewers. It had never been rebroadcast on the BBC since that night and it is a difficult film to get a chance to watch.

In fact, I have been looking for a version of this since the beginning of the DailyView, but it was no longer available on Shudder or Amazon or any of the other streamers that I use. However, today I found the full film on Internet Archive, a sight where I finally got a chance to see what was considered one of the most controversial shows on television.

British broadcaster and journalist Michael Parkinson hosted the documentary, which looked like a news special, by talking in studio to a parapsychology expert Dr. Lin Pascoe (Gillian Bevan), and sending the camera to other locations, including inside the house that was considered ‘The most haunted house in Britain’ and where the investigation was taking place with Sarah Greene (who played herself) anchoring the coverage along with a camera crew.

At the location was a single mom (Brid Brennan) and her two girls, Kim (Cherise Wesson) and Suzanne (Michelle Wesson), who were being tormented by a spirit that Kim would call ‘Pipes’ from the banging sound that would be made in the house. Dr. Pascoe had been with the family and was a believer in what was going on, though plenty of the people involved were more skeptical, including Parkinson.

They had a section of the studio assigned to take phone calls from the viewers, who would see things on their screens that others could not see…including the mysterious Pipes.

The program built through its hour and a half slowly, providing details and information that fueled the story, and continued to keep viewers on edge. You could feel how it was building toward something happening (and happen it damn sure well did).

The film did an expert job of providing not only those people who believed in what they were seeing as well as those experts who considered it a fraud. When Suzanne was found banging on the wall, it seemed as if the case of fraud had been proven, making Parkinson confident that the program had shown the truth.

I thought this was brilliantly constructed and exceptionally worked the tension of the moment up with every step of the time. Everything about the program screamed credible and made you think it was truly happening. Even I, who knew this was a program, found myself embroiled in the mystery and the story.

Ghostwatch was written by Stephen Volk, who was a known Welsh horror screenwriter and novelist, and directed by Lesley Manning. It has been awhile since a horror film has left me feeling as uneasy as this one did. It was a fantastic special and I am so glad that I finally got a chance to see it for myself.

DailyView: Day 326, Movie 467

Lured is a 1947 film noir featuring the talents of Pre-I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball and directed by Douglas Sirk. The cast featured a group of other talented horror actors such as Bela Legosi and George Zucco.

There is a serial killer running around London meeting eventual victims through the personal ads. He would then write a poem to taunt the police about his upcoming murder. When night club dancer Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) came to the police to report a missing friend, the police, led by Chief Inspector Harley Temple (Charles Coburn), found her to be bright and intelligent and just the perfect woman to be their “bait” in an attempt to capture this killer.

Sandra responded to many different ads and wound up in several unlikely situations, but she was being shadowed by Officer H. R. Barrett (George Zucco). The plan to catch the killer hit a snag when Sandra met and became engaged to socialite Robert Fleming (George Sanders).

This was an extremely enjoyable film that showed off some talented actors. Lucille Ball in particular was a breath of fresh air. I loved how the film portrayed Sandra as intelligent and quick-thinking, and not just as a damsel-in-distress. She was an active participant in the operation to catch the killer, and, along the way, stopped some other potential criminals. The scenes with Lucille Ball and Boris Karloff as Charles van Druten, crazed fashion designer, were worth the film watch alone.

Admittedly, the movie did bounce between tones. There were plenty of moments of humor, especially in the dialogue, and that prevented the movie from fully becoming anxious and tense. However, I thought the balance was perfectly struck as I still felt nervous for Sandra in every situation that she found herself in.

While the killer’s identity is fairly apparent once introduced, it did not prevent the wonder of how they were going to bring the culprit to justice. I enjoyed the relationship between Sandra and Temple as well as Sandra and Barrett. There was a friendship and a mutual respect among them that you do not usually see in films of this time.

Lured was a completely enjoyable film that I am glad I got to watch for today’s DailyView.

DailyView: Day 325, Movie 466

Bill Murray said that he considered retiring after the making of Broken Flowers because “he felt that it was the best acting performance he could ever give.” Broken Flowers was a very compelling character study and an intriguing mystery.

Bill Murray played Don Johnston, a man who made a fortune in computers and has now retired, regulating to longue around his house. After a fight with his girlfriend Sherry (Julie Delpry) in which she leaves him, a mysterious, unsigned letter arrived claiming to have been from an old girlfriend of Don’s who gave birth to Don’s son two decades before. The letter indicated that his son was going on a road trip to perhaps find Don.

Don initially dismissed this letter until he showed it to his mystery-novel enthusiast neighbor Winston (Jeffrey Wright), who pushed Don to investigate the possibilities and he set up Don’s entire trip. He goes on the trip and checks in on four of his former flames.

The four former girlfriends were played by Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton. Each character got progressively worse as the film moved on. All four of them were fantastic and I did not even realize that Penny was Tilda Swinton.

I really did enjoy this movie quite a bit, but I was a little put off by the ending of the film. It came out with such an uncertain resolution that it bothered me a bit. I think that just speaks to how effective the film and Bill Murray were in establishing the movie’s central mystery. I wanted to know more about each of the girlfriends, especially those last couple who seemed to have something unspoken going on.

The Jeffrey Wright/Bill Murray pairing was also excellently carried off. Nearly opposites of each other, the dynamic really helped to create the lure of the mystery.

Directed by Jim Jarmusch, Broken Flowers is a great film with a engaging hook of a story with some top notch acting from a high level cast.

DailyView: Day 325, Movie 465

One of the YouTube reactors that I enjoy watching is Ashleigh Burton. She is a millennial who has not seen very many classic movies and she watches and reacts to them. Every once in awhile, she does a film that I have not seen either. Many times I just do not watch that episode, but this week, the Boondock Saints came up and I thought it was a good choice for the DailyView.

I was wrong.

I did not like this movie at all. It was crude, racist, homophobic, and full of violence in the name of religion. It has just about every bad trait imaginable.

Two Irish brothers Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus), kill a couple of Russian mobsters in self-defense. They turn themselves in to the police, including FBI agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe) and they are released. The brothers see this as a calling from God and they become vigilantes, killing criminals in Boston. Smecker investigated the murders, but he started to believe in the righteousness of the mission.

Dafoe is way over the top. Flanery and Reedus are fine, but they do not standout as they should. David Della Rocco played a character named Rocco who joined up with the brothers as a way of vengeance toward the crooks who looked down on him. He was sloppy and careless and it was hard to believe that the MacManus brothers would waste their time with someone like Rocco.

It really was a film filled with hatred toward people and I found it quite insulting.

Now to see what Ashleigh thought.

DailyView: Day 324, Movie 464

On Amazon Prime, there are a bunch of interesting documentaries that I listed on my “My Stuff” section. Tonight I watched Missing Mom, a doc about the search by two brothers for their mother who disappeared when they were children.

Filmmaker Rob McCallum and his brother Chris Byford started the search for their mother, who they had not seen for 25 years.

I enjoyed the doc, but, honestly, it all felt a little easy. You could not help the fact that they were able to be as successful as they were in short fashion.

I liked the way the movie used a bulletin board as a transition,

There were some moments of intrigue in the doc. Rob and Chris were engaging as the leads of the documentary. The others in the story are fine, but nothing really stands out. It was okay.

DailyView: Day 323, Movie 463

St. Patrick’s Day brought an animated film called The Secret of Kells to the DailyView tonight and it is a gorgeous artistic masterpiece. This film was nominated for the Academy Award in 2010, losing to the eventual winner, Pixar’s Up.

The animation style was very reminiscent of last year’s Wolfwalkers, what was considered the third in the Irish Folklore trilogy from director Tomm Moore.

The protagonist of the film was named Brendan (Evan McGuire), a boy who lived with his Uncle Abbot Cellach (Brendan Gleeson) in the Abbey of Kells. Abbot Cellach wanted to build a wall around the Abbey to prevent any Viking attacks and has not allowed Brendan outside of the Abbey.

However, things change when Brother Aidan (Mick Lally) arrived with his cat Pangur Bán, after his own monastery was destroyed in a raid. Aiden brought with him the book that he was still illuminating the pages. Aiden sent Brendan out to the woods to find gall nuts to make ink. Once out of the Abbey, Brendan meets the fairy Aisling (Christen Mooney) who helps him find the gall nuts. They become friends and she said he was welcome to come back again.

I found this animation style absolutely gorgeous and perfectly suited for the story being told. The sequence where the Vikings were attacking the Abbey of Kells is one of the most sensational animated sequences I may have ever seen. It was stunning, both visually and emotionally.

The narrative may be fairly simple, but the imagery and the colors were out of this world. The character design are beautiful and fit wonderfully in the tale being woven.

I will say that it felt a little rushed at the end, with the basic story wrapping up quickly. The last ten minutes of the movie was spread over years of story time and I would have liked more where the film skipped a chunk of time. Still, it resolved the main conflict skillfully.

This was exceptional. One of the best visually animated films I have ever seen.

DailyView: Day 323, Movie 462

It is St. Patrick’s Day and I searched up some Irish films to watch tonight. The first one is a coming of age story of a young girl who got pregnant unexpectedly, and brought chaos upon her family by refusing to name the father.

Tina Kellegher starred as Sharon, the young girl who got pregnant by one of her friends’ father (Brendan Gleeson), though she claimed that it was a Spanish sailor instead. Colm Meaney played Sharon’s father who went through the gamut of emotions. First he was embarrassed by the shame of Sharon’s tryst, then angry when the rumors of the possible father came out, and finally a caring and supportive, reading books on pregnancy.

Meaney was the top performer in this film. He was great throughout, as he was able to show many sides to the character. His comedic timing was impeccable and his work as he was rushing Sharon to the hospital was absolutely hilarious.

The family comedy-drama of The Snapper was excellent and realistic. This is a real family and they showed the strains that would come with this situation.

Just a solid little film that was entertaining and funny.

DailyView: Day 322, Movie 461

The documentaries have been dark recently. While there is no sexual abuse involved here, cannibalism is a different kind of abomination.

This documentary (which apparently was released in Spain in 2011, but Amazon Prime lists the year as 2015) deals with a dark spot in Russian history. In 1933, Joseph Stalin deported 6000 “unwanted” citizens of Moscow and Leningrad to a desolate Siberian island, Nazino Island with little in way of clothing, food or materials needed for survival. After a certain amount of time, the deportees turned to violence, including murder and cannibalism to try and maintain their lives.

The whole time I was watching this documentary, all I kept thinking about was the Holocaust that would begin in Nazi Germany in less than 5-6 years later. Stalin was an ally with the United States and Britain in World War II, but Stalin had committed many atrocities against his own people by the time World War II was underway.

There were people who were removed to the island who had done nothing wrong. People who had gone out from their house without their passports to prove who they were had been grabbed and deported among this group of people. The randomness of the whole situation makes it all the worse.

It makes one wonder at what point do you go from a normal human being to someone who is so desperately hungry that they would kill someone for food. It certainly is not a situation that I ever plan on being stuck within.

Cannibal Island told a story that I had never heard before, but should be something that we never forget.

DailyView: Day 321, Movie 460

This did not feel like a movie that could have possibly failed. Bill Murray in a comedy filled with miscommunication and a dialogue heavy story. Unfortunately, this movie does it.

Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) comes to London to see his brother James (Peter Gallagher) on Wallace’s birthday. James has a major business meeting and he does not want his brother hanging around. So he sets him up with a special treat, an improv theater business called “The Theater of Life” that treats the customer as a character in a crime drama. However, a miscommunication lands Wallace in the middle of a real crime spy story, still thinking that he is in the Theater of Life.

This was really the only joke going on in the movie. It is a continuous miscommunication, with no one smart enough to figure it out and Wallace being unnaturally lucky in situation after situation.

The Man Who Knew Too Little, which parodied the classic Hitchcock film title (The Man Who Knew Too Much), was not funny and had so many ridiculous moments that I lost interest soon after the film started. Wallace was such a dimwit that there was no way that this film would work, except that everyone else in the movie was way stupider.

There is a good cast here, led by Murray that also included Alfred Molina, John Standing, Joanne Whalley, Richard Wilson, Geraldine James, and Anna Chancellor.

Silly and ridiculous. One-joke film only. Bill Murray deserved better than this.

DailyView: Day 320, Movie 459

Eagle vs. Shark was the directorial debut of Taika Waititi and was shot in New Zealand.

According to IMDB: “In Wellington, wallflower Lily (Loren Horsley) is inexplicably attracted to loser Jarrod (Jemaine Clement). She’s out of a job; he’s nursing a decade-long grudge against someone who teased him in high school. When she accompanies him to his seacoast hometown where he intends to take on his nemesis, she meets his father, his daughter from a one-night stand, and other family members–plus the memory of his talented, dead brother. Jarrod treats Lily badly, invents a relationship with his dead brother’s fiancée, and gears up for his fight. Will she finally have enough and go home?“

I did not love this film, but you could definitely see the style of Taika Waititi coming through in the movie. The was a lot of quirkiness and oddball characters that develop into deeper characters than you expect. There are some very imaginative scenes including one of a hula hoop, and some others involving stop motion.

The relationship between Lily and Jarrod was a bizarre one. I did not find it that interesting and that definitely flawed the film for me. Both actors were intriguing, but I just did not feel the connection between the characters.

I actually liked the friendship between Lily and Jarrod’s father (Brian Sergent) more than the romantic relationship with Lily and Jarrod.

Maybe the film did not grab my attention at first and maybe I did not find anyone to really root for in the story. I usually like the eccentric films like this, and I loved Taika Waititi’s film oeuvre. There are some highlights in Eagle vs. Shark, and you can definitely see it leading to some of the other Waititi films, but I was looking for more out of it.

DailyView: Day 319, Movie 458

Brian DePalma directed this horror/psychological thriller that looked at the world of multiple personalities and mental illness. John Lithgow starred as Dr. Carter Nix, a child psychologist who was starting a trial on childhood development.

It is not too long until we discover that Carter has some personal issues. They tried to make it look like Carter had a twin brother, but it was pretty obvious what was going on. Carter had multiple personalities and he was imagining that he was talking to a twin brother.

Carter’s wife, Jenny (Lolita Davidovich) is uncertain about what Carter wanted to do with their daughter, and was unhappy in their marriage. She came across an old flame Jack (Steven Bauer) and entered into an affair.

Meanwhile Carter and his “twin” Cain started stealing children and killing their mothers.

I’m not sure what to think about this one. It felt too over the top, especially with John Lithgow’s performance. How did this guy get to be a child psychologist? Of course, it was blamed on his father, also played by John Lithgow. The film made us think that the father was another personality at first, but he turned out to be real.

It felt as if the idea of mental illness was not taken as seriously as it could be, but this was the early nineties and that is how it was presented.

DePalma was a big Hitchcock fan and there are definitely some homages to the master. Unfortunately it was just not quite as clever as Hitchcock films. It all just felt like a TV movie.

DailyView: Day 319, Movie 457

I decided to watch a documentary today that was not a story of sexual abuse (which the last couple of documentaries that I have watched were about). This doc is much more inspirational. It was all about DDPYoga.

Diamond Dallas Page was a professional wrestler who, in order to work his own injuries out, started a yoga program designed for the regular guys. The documentary, called Relentless, was the story of how Diamond Dallas Page got his program started and the path it took to becoming a huge success.

The doc does touch upon Dallas’s early days as a wrestler, but it is not a major focus. It is basically included to show how DDP started the yoga program and to give a reason behind his choices. Then the doc features several of the people who have been helped by the DDPYoga and the benefits that they have received by working in the program.

The film tells the abridged story of Jake “The Snake” Roberts and his own personal struggles and how DDP helped save his lie. Plenty of other wrestlers shared their own successes with the program like Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Cody Rhodes. But it also included other celebrities who found DDPYoga and changed their lives like Darius Rucker and Gabriel Iglesias.

Even more inspirational was the stories of the non-celebrities that had been helped by DDP.

There were several times when I had some tears in my eyes while watching this doc because of the tales being told by these people. The Jake Roberts stuff was especially touching. DDP truly has made a difference in the lives of people and he deserves every benefit coming his way.

DailyView: Day 319, Movie 456

WTF?

I guess I had no idea what this was going to be, because this wild and DARK comedy caught me completely off-guard.

A young girl named Carly (Anne Winters) and her little brother Josh (Zackary Arthur) have to survive a period when a mass hysteria swept the nation, that caused parents to turn on their children.

Carly’s parents were Brent (Nicolas Cage) and Kendall (Selma Blair) who had already started to regret the lives that they were living and this mysterious illness made them easy victims.

I don’t want to go into much detail here in case someone out there wants to see this because if you can approach this like I did, with absolutely no idea what was going to happen, you’ll have the same wild and shockingly fun time that I did.

What I will tell you: this movie is funny. Maybe you’ll feel bad about laughing, but laugh you will.

Second, it features one of those Nic Cage magnetically unhinged performances that he has become infamous for.

Other than that, I don’t want to spoil this crazy ride. I constantly had my eyes bulging and my mouth open in shock. Mom and Dad is a psychotic compilation.

DailyView: Day 318, Movie 455

Another documentary that deals with the horrible topic of sexual abuse. This time, it deals with the abuse of power with a school and members of the faculty that used their power to abuse a group of boys, which went on for years and lead to multiple suicides.

The school: Porter-Gaud in Charleston, South Carolina. Paige Goldberg Tolmach had received word that another former student from her alma mater had committed suicide, she decided that there was something going on and it needed to be looked into. What she found was one of the worst hidden secrets of the school.

Eddie Fischer was the popular teacher who found ways to bring thee young boys to his home and rape them. People were quiet, even though it sounded as if many people already knew that Fischer’s behavior was suspicious, if not criminal. He was a coach and, apparently, any time anyone had an injury, no matter what the injury may be, he wanted them to “drop your drawers.” This became a running gag at the school. This hid a deeper and much worse situation.

Allegedly, administration covered for Fischer when some parents stepped up and came forward to confront the school.

If this doc gives us anything, it tells us that we must not be afraid to step forward and give a voice to the fears or the secrets. This kind of behavior can not survive in the light. It requires kids to do nothing, afraid of being exposed.

It makes one wonder how many Eddie Fischers there are out in our schools today.