Season of the Witch (1972)
aka. Hungry Wives
aka. Jack’s Wife
★ ★ ½ George Romero’s least well-known horror film, probably because its 70s no-budget look is visually unappealing. It lacks focus for sure, with some sloppy editing and a couple of really long dialogue scenes. (The film exists in 3 versions: the 89min Season of the Witch, the 130min Hungry Wives and the 104min Jack’s Wife, which I saw.) Once again, Romero shows a mastery for using Horror as Satire, showing how a housewife’s boredom would lead her to witchcraft, which liberates her from domestic life. That aspect of the film, and how it all plays out is smartly-handled.
Return of the Blind Dead (1973)
aka. The Return of the Evil Dead
aka. Mark of the Devil 5
★ ½ Sequel to the film that inspired this Marathon. It was while watching Tombs of the Blind Dead that I realized much as I had interest in the films on They Shoot Zombies’ list, the only way I would complete it is as a batch where I could quickly move away from such uninspired choices. This film is better I think, but that’s the 200 films between lowering my expectations.
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
aka. Dracula is Alive and Well and Living in London
aka. Dracula is Dead… and Well and Living in London
aka. Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride
★ ★ ½ Having played Dracula 10 times, this is the last time Christopher Lee is up against Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing. (Appearing in over 30 films together, they would co-star one last time after this in House of the Long Shadows.) Lee always has great presence, but Cushing is the superior actor and this lesser Hammer Horror comes alive every time he’s on screen. Stakes couldn’t be higher with an older Count bored with this world using Satanists and the plague to bring about Armageddon. Fittingly, this is one Hammer film that doesn’t rush the ending.
House of Whipcord (1974)
aka. The Photographer’s Models
aka. Stag Model Slaughter
★ ★In the final twenty minutes I started to see the satirical angle to this British women in prison film. There's something definitely going on in the subtext about the systematic suppression of females done by other women who hide behind men to carry out their own revenge against pretty ladies having a good time. It took me so long because the film's surface is a pandering fetish picture. Not too violent and not at all scary, I can understand the film finding a cult of fans but I won't be joining in.
The Devil’s Rain (1975)
★ ★”Absolutely the most incredible ending of any motion picture.” is a bold claim by the marketing department. While not remotely true, the ending is the best part of this film and the final twist is even better than that. Getting there, however, is no fun at all. There’s no cohesion to the scenes, a disaster of editing, with too much of what’s left performed without dialogue so that it’s boring too. The inexplicable star power includes Tom Skerritt, Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino and John Travolta.