It’s a trio of new Blu-ray additions to my collection, so let’s see if they were worth subtraction from my wallet.
END OF THE WORLD (1977)
Not gonna lie. This isn’t a good movie, but the filmmaker definitely makes the scenes with Christopher Lee feel like classic horror moments with Christopher Lee. Or…maybe it’s just Christopher Lee doing that.
The focus is on some scientist guy getting signals from outer space while a series of natural catastrophes are striking earth. So he and his woman start an investigation into what could be the cause. That’s the boring bulk of the film.
Meanwhile, Christopher Lee is a priest cloned at a convent along with a bunch of nuns by some sort of aliens.
Eventually, the investigation leads the man and woman to the convent.
Other than seeing some alien hands on the nuns, all we get is talk, with Lee explaining the dastardly plan of the aliens…which requires the man either steal a crystal from a government plant for them or they’ll kill his woman. The fact that this mission lasts like five minutes and makes absolutely no attempt at suspense pretty much sums up the whole movie. We are, however, finally thrown a bone and get a glimpse of alien head.
MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE (1977)
Not having a single meat cleaver present in this film makes as much sense as having Christopher Lee provide an unrelated intro and outro (due to his narration apparently being filmed for a different movie then sold without his consent to this movie).
The good news is, Lee brings his devil dick along.
Meatcleaver Massacre is about a teacher who pisses off a burnout student that doesn’t believe in his tales of ancient magic.
As revenge, the student gathers together some friends, goes to the teacher’s house, and kills the whole family, including the dog. But the teacher survives, is in a coma, and somehow conjures a revenge demon.
In between a detective investigating the initial home invasion, there are a handful of odd supernatural murders of the killers.
First a guy has a sepia toned nightmare that feels like something out of Carnival of Souls, and then dies by what appears to be a cactus attack in the desert.
Another guy is almost compelled to slit his wrists but instead goes to his job at an auto shop and gets crushed in a car hood. A third guy feels up some tits during a sex scene then gets fried by a projector at the movie theater where he works. I think this movie is trying to warn us that work kills.
The money shot comes when the original burnout student goes back to the teacher’s house and looks for a counter spell to stop the demon. Fast, choppy editing delivers a pretty effective, totally 70s freaky attack by the demon in the basement. Best part of an otherwise dull movie, but I discovered if you grab a screenshot of the demon for a blog post, he looks like a poor man’s Swamp Thing…
DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL (1978)
I can’t believe it’s been over forty years since I originally saw this one on television as a kid. It’s a little different than I remember, because all the times I’ve referenced Devil Dog, the Hound from Hell in my life (more times than I can count), I just recall it being about an evil dog. In actuality, the devil dog kind of possesses almost the entire family that adopts him.
The opening scene has a satanic cult led by Martine Beswick of Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde conjuring the son of the devil to go into a German Shepherd.
One of its puppies ends up in the hands of Richard Crenna and his family, which includes young Kim Richards as the daughter.
It’s kind of funny to realize that this movie is essentially The Omen with a dog. Every time someone wrongs the family, that someone gets killed. The mother, son, and daughter become its minions, making sure it is protected from any threats against its existence. And the father is the one who has to go out of his way to figure out how to do away with the devil that has entered the family’s life.
The climax feature a silly looking transformation of the dog into what looks like it should be a contestant on Dragula.
