[31 Days of Horror: Resurrection] Day 30 – Mr. Sardonicus (1961)

Director: William Castle
Cast: Oscar Homolka, Ronald Lewis, Audrey Dalton, Guy Rolfe, Vladimir Sokoloff, Erika Peters, Lorna Hanson
Screenplay: Ray Russell
89 mins. Approved.

Sing it with me! SARDONICUS 6-5000!

(Seriously, it fits with the song so well I can’t stop singing it)

I can’t believe we’ve never covered William Castle (House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler) on 31 Days of Halloween before! Sure, we’ve done a few remakes of his work, but nothing official. What’s wrong with me?

London physician Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis, Taste of Fear, Billy Budd) has arrived in Gorslava at the request of his former flame, Maude (Audrey Dalton, Separate Tables, Titanic), who has now married to Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe, Dolls, Odd Man Out). The locals of Gorslava fear the baron, and Robert becomes concerned when he meets the disturbing assistant Krull (Oscar Homolka, The Seven Year Itch, Sabotage), who carries out the Baron’s every wishes. When Robert finally discovers the horrific reason for his arrival in Gorslava, it will leave you smiling, whether you want or not.

Based on a story by screenwriter Ray Russell (X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, The Premature Burial), published in Playboy magazine, Sardonicus is classic William Castle. It’s full of low-budget thrills, unusual plot points, showing little but working well enough, and even a gimmick (we’ll get to it, don’t worry).

The biggest strength of Mr. Sardonicus is the two lead villain performances. Guy Rolfe, who would later become iconic in the Puppet Master series, is Sardonicus, and he has to do a lot with his voice. For most of the film, he has a face mask, which is creepy, but restricts a lot of facial acting. When the mask isn’t on (Rolfe could only work with the makeup for an hour at a time due to the extensive prosthetics), he has to work with makeup effects that also restrict some of his facial performance, and yet, he comes off as genuinely chilling. Homolka’s Krull is equally unnerving, though he has more to work with. He’s able to work as an extension of Sardonicus and elevate both performances.

I’m also a sucker for a good William Castle gimmick. I recently discussed Popcorn on Kyle & Nick on Film, a love letter for the Castle gimmick, and it’s one of the main strengths of that film. Mr. Sardonicus features an ending where Castle himself comes onscreen to ask the audience what ending the film deserves. He offers up two options to the audience and asks them to hold up a corresponding thumbs up card for one option, or hold it upside-down as a thumbs down for the other ending. Now, be aware that there’s only one actual ending (though a rumor has persisted for decades that another ending was scripted and shot but that’s never been made official), and I only saw one, but Castle plays up that the audience always votes for the one ending, and some theaters even had staff come in and vote that way to convince that it was not set up to only be one. Either way, it’s a fun little idea that allows the audience to breathe and have fun, and we even printed off the corresponding cards for our own home screening. Even though it’s not a real choice, I love this idea and it works really well to get me back invested in where the ending goes (this is how you do it, not like Blood Dolls).

Mr. Sardonicus is a goofy, silly time, and I had a lot of fun with its admittedly low-budget nature. It’s more fun than actually scary, and if you don’t care for Castle and his gimmicks, this one won’t sway you, but I quite enjoyed it. Give it a watch, and bring your voting cards.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

October 31, 2022 0

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Brad Dourif, Sean Bean, Andy Serkis

Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Philipps Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, Peter Jackson

179 mins. Rated PG-13 for epic battle sequences and scary images.

Academy Award Winner: Best Sound Editing
Academy Award Winner: Best Visual Effects
Academy Award Nominee: Best Picture
Academy Award Nominee: Best Art Direction – Set Decoration
Academy Award Nominee: Best Film Editing
Academy Award Nominee: Best Sound

iMDB Top 250: #16 (as of 12/7/2015)

We had to wait a whole year to find out what happened to Frodo (Elijah Wood, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Cooties) and Sam (Sean Astin, TV’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Goonies). That, or just read the book.

Let’s just focus on the film. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers furthers Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring. The fellowship has broken, and friends Pippin (Billy Boyd, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Dorothy and the Witches of Oz) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan, TV’s Lost, I Sell the Dead) have been taken by the orcs to Isengard. Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen, A History of Violence, On the Road), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Anacondas: Trail of Blood), and Legolas (Orlando Bloom, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Three Musketeers) follow the orc pack in an attempt to free them. As Frodo gets closer to his goal, he comes across help in the form of the creature Gollum (Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Arthur Christmas), who held the ring before Bilbo found it sixty years previously, but is Gollum truly a friend or a foe?

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is based on the second book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and proved to be the most difficult in adapting. First of all, the book is split in two. The first half covers Aragorn and company on their journey. The second half focuses on Frodo, so careful planning and rearranging was taken to make the film chronological in nature. As I’ve said before, Tolkien was a great storyteller but his structure left something to be desired. Then came the difficulty of too much climax with two stories running concurrently. So some events from the second book had to be relocated to the first and third film.

The acting here is tremendous again. Newcomer Bernard Hill (Titanic, ParaNorman) joins as King Theoden of Rohan, who has a warped mind due to the hold Saruman (Christopher Lee, Star Wars – Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Dark Shadows) has over his mind. Theoden is confined to his throne and being further distorted by the slimy Grima Wormtongue (Brad Dourif, Dune, Curse of Chucky). Frodo gets to interact with Faramir (David Wenham, 300, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole), brother of the recently slain Boromir (Sean Bean, TV’s Legends, GoldenEye).

Peter Jackson’s vision is further explored in sweeping visuals during the battle of Helm’s Deep, the film’s main set piece. The score continues to impress, giving each character its own nuance. Again, the costumes are gorgeous.

The faults with this film are few. The pacing is difficult from the screenwriting difficulties. It is clear that the middle act of the film muddles a bit in trying to realign itself to the story. Really, that’s about it. This film has, since its release, been considered to be much better than initial reviews gave it, even though initial reviews were still damn good, and while I enjoyed it, it certainly wasn’t as good as the first and third. Still, take this journey to Middle-Earth. You won’t be disappointed.

4.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, click here.

For my review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, click here.

For my review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, click here.

For my review of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, click here.

For my review of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, click here.

For my review of Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste, click here.

For my review of Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, click here.

April 3, 2015 5

Nightcrawler (2014)

Director: Dan Gilroy

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton

Screenplay: Dan Gilroy

117 mins. Rated R for violence including graphic images, and for language.

Academy Award Nominee: Best Writing, Original Screenplay

In Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut, Nightcrawler, we meet Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal, Donnie Darko, Accidental Love), a severe sociopath looking for something to be great at. When he comes across a collision on the highway, he meets Joe Loder (Bill Paxton, Titanic, Edge of Tomorrow), a man who makes his living being the first man on the scene with a camera, ready to sell his footage to the highest bidding news outlet. He is a nightcrawler. Louis Bloom takes his specific and strange set of skills to this new obsession, and a new fascination in Nina Romina (Rene Russo, Outbreak, Thor: The Dark World), a woman who takes interest in Louis’ footage. As Bloom falls deeper and deeper into fractured sanity, his skills improve, and his methods evolve with truly terrifying results.

Gyllenhaal is completely unnerving as Bloom here, and his mental transformation is almost more impressive than his physical transformation, and Bloom’s arc is very much like the car crash which ignites his passion: something horrifying to witness, but impossible to look away. He is met on his playing field by Russo’s Romina, an aging ex-anchor who very much misses the limelight. She uses Bloom as he uses her. There is something creepily affectionate about their relationship. Paxton provides a likability to his unlikable Joe Loder. These are characters we don’t like, but we can’t stop viewing.

Gilroy’s cinematography could use some work. The film doesn’t move in the way it should. The pacing doesn’t have the beats it should to make the film flow right. The film’s score complements Gyllenhaal’s performance well. In fact, the entirety of the film exists to turn you away from it. The whole film is enjoyable once but not a film I could watch again.

Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler is a moody character study. Men like Bloom exist, and that is perhaps the most terrifying takeaway from this film. Gyllenhaal deserves recognition for once again proving that he is at the top of his game and is the reason his character is so unlikably likable.

3.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

March 7, 2015 3

[Happy 20th Birthday!] Tales from the Crypt presents Demon Knight (1995)

Director: Ernest R. Dickerson

Cast: Billy Zane, William Sadler, Jada Pinkett Smith, Thomas Haden Church, CCH Pounder, John Kassir

Screenplay: Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris, Mark Bishop

92 mins. Rated R for gore, horror violence, sexuality and language.

Only a series like Tales from the Crypt can make a joke about going postal into a plot point. Seriously.

It’s been twenty years since the first in a planned (but cancelled) trilogy of Tales from the Crypt films was released in theaters. Demon Knight is the story of an age-old battle between good and evil, following Brayker (William Sadler, The Shawshank Redemption, Machete Kills), a man who has lived far past his years, as he is hunted throughout the forgotten roads of western civilization by a being known only as The Collector (Billy Zane, Titanic, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption). Brayker is in possession of a mystical relic, a key, and The Collector will stop at nothing to retrieve it. As Brayker holds up in an old church turned into a motel, owner Irene (CCH Pounder, TV’s NCIS: New Orleans, Avatar) fears he is dangerous and accidentally brings The Collector right to their door. Now, Brayker, Irene, and the rest of the motel residents, including ex-con Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith, TV’s Gotham, Collateral) and Roach (Thomas Haden Church, Sideways, Heaven is for Real), a guy just looking for a good time, to stop The Collector from unleashing hell on Earth in this full-length tale told by the menacing Crypt Keeper (John Kassir, Pocahontas, The Smurfs 2).

It is tough to judge a film based on campiness when camp is the overall goal in mind. The movie is goofy, but has a solidly enjoyable screenplay, though it gets a little muddled at the end. Some of the rules created don’t exactly make sense (kind of like Gremlins, you don’t really need to care). The performances are all loopily over-the-top, sometimes too much so. This whole movie exists to service the fans, and half of them weren’t even serviced all in all. I happened to enjoy it, but I agree that it may have worked better as a longer episode rather than a feature. I will say, though, it’s still a pretty damn fun time.

3/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

January 13, 2015 4

Tammy (2014)

Director: Ben Falcone

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Allison Janney, Gary Cole, Mark Duplass, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, Nat Faxon, Dan Aykroyd, Kathy Bates

Screenplay: Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone

97 mins. Rated R for language including sexual references.

Melissa McCarthy (TV’s Gilmore Girls, St. Vincent) has the acting chops for both comedy and drama, yet she chooses to write comedies that just aren’t very good. Thus is the case with Tammy, her newest effort from husband-director Ben Falcone.

In Tammy, McCarthy plays a down-on-her-luck food server who has just lost a car and a job and now decides to just leave town with her elderly grandmother Pearl (Susan Sarandon, Thelma & Louise, The Big Wedding). I know, it doesn’t make much sense. Along the way, she meets Bobby (Mark Duplass, TV’s The League, Mercy) and his father Earl (Gary Cole, Pineapple Express, The Town That Dreaded Sundown) who both take a shine to ladies. Somehow. There isn’t a whole lot of chemistry, but apparently they do. They also meet up with lesbian lovers Lenore (Kathy Bates, TV’s American Horror Story, Titanic) and Susanne (Sandra Oh, TV’s Grey’s Anatomy, Rabbit Hole) who are also related to Tammy but it doesn’t seem that way. Again, I must say that it isn’t a good plot.

Essentially, this story was terrible. These characters were flat and unlikable. Melissa McCarthy isn’t funny. Susan Sarandon is disappointing. Also, the ages kind of mess with you. How is Susan Sarandon the mother of Allison Janney (TV’s The West Wing, Get On Up) who is also the mother of Melissa McCarthy? Seriously, how?

Then there is the terrible chemistry or lack thereof with Mark Duplass. I mean, c’mon, there wasn’t a single moment when I believed these two.

Let’s not forget the misuse of Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, The Boxtrolls). That’s right, she is in this movie, but look fast or you’ll miss it. The same is true with Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters, Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return).

All in all, Ben Falcone’s absent directing of a bad screenplay between himself and wife McCarthy does nothing to make this movie anything more than a turd. Yes, I said it, a turd.

1.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

December 28, 2014 3

[Happy 5th Birthday!] Avatar (2009)

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver

Screenplay: James Cameron

162 mins. Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and smoking.

Academy Award Winner: Best Achievement in Cinematography
Academy Award Winner: Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Academy Award Winner: Best Achievement in Art Direction
Academy Award Nominee: Best Motion Picture
Academy Award Nominee: Best Achievement in Directing
Academy Award Nominee: Best Achievement in Film Editing
Academy Award Nominee: Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Academy Award Nominee: Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Academy Award Nominee: Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Titanic was a powerhouse at the box office during its release back in 1997. I don’t think anyone could have guessed that director James Cameron (Aliens, Aliens of the Deep) would be the one to dethrone his own film as highest grossing film of all time, but as it turns out, he did in 2009 when he released Avatar, a masterpiece of science fiction and general filmmaking.

Avatar is the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington, Terminator: Salvation, Cake), a paraplegic grunt who takes on his dead twin’s job as explorer on the planet Pandora. Jake’s job is simple, explore and make contact with the Na’vi, a species of humanoid blue aliens living on the planet, through the use of neural link with something called an avatar. When he gets lost on the planet by himself, he is saved by Ney’tiri (Zoe Saldana, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Book of Life), a Na’vi princess who is tasked with showing Jake the ways of their community. While the science lead Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Cabin in the Woods) wants to pursue peace talks with the indigenous Na’vi, the military Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang, Conan the Barbarian, A Good Marriage) is only interested in moving them elsewhere in order to mine the precious element Unobtanium which lies beneath their home.

James Cameron should be awarded for the directing skills he has. I love the work he puts into his films. His screenplays, however, often fail to truly inspire. That’s where the controversy surrounding Avatar lies. Cameron’s screenplay was very criticized for being essentially the same movie as Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, Fern Gully, and The Last Samurai. Now, I don’t see that as being a problem, because there are only essentially two stories. The first is the story of a man who leaves home and finds a mysterious place, and the second is the story of a mysterious man who comes to town. Yeah, these films are similar, but so many stories are the same. It’s how you tell them that matters, and James Cameron tells his story well.

Avatar’s cinematography deserves to be experienced, not merely seen. The environments on Pandora are so beautifully envisioned and so deeply realized. The film is edited together very tightly, though the story does run on a little longer than it needed to be. The special effects are so vivid and so well-crafted that they are the most-deserving of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects that year.

Let’s take a look at the performances here. Sam Worthington definitely has the look of a superstar and there was even a time when I thought he was capable of acting, but since that time has passed and I have realized that isn’t true. His work in Avatar isn’t the worst in cinema, but he is easily trounced by his fellow actors. Stephen Lang’s over-the-top performance works quite well given the out-of-this-world story here.

Can I just have a moment to proclaim Zoe Saldana as the hottest alien working in films today? She is mostly known for the incredible work in three science fiction masterpieces like Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, and here as well.

I give enough props to Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious, Machete Kills) for portraying the same character she plays in every movie, and she does it well enough.

Sigourney Weaver adds that extra layer of professionalism to the film that raises the level nicely.

Avatar isn’t a perfect film, but it comes pretty damn close for all the hype it had. I still find it quite enjoyable, even for a film with a less than stellar screenplay and a runtime a little longer than needed. Still worth it. Still a phenomenon.

4.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

December 10, 2014 17