Schmollywood Babylon

The UFO Incident (Richard A. Colla, 1975)

In 1961 Betty and Barney Hill was on their way home from a vacation to the Niagara Falls to their hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was the September 19th, approximate 10:30 PM and something happen, something went wrong. Two hours the couple woke up - and those two hours were lost in the labyrinth of their mind. But both of them sensed something wrong and a little bit later Betty called in the experience, what she could remember, as a UFO encounter... and then it all started. Through hypnosis and psychoanalysis they told very similar stories about being abducted by aliens, taken aboard a flying saucer and experimented on. 

The case have gone to history as one of the most talked about, and according to some, the most convincing case ever. The thing is that neither Betty or Barney really wanted to use their newfound fame to make money. If someone asked them they talked about it, but they never seeked out to me neither famous or rich. Barney died of a stroke in 1969 and Betty of cancer in 2004. Interesting story, and I would say that the best way to experience this is to watch the excellent TV-movie The UFO Incident starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons. 

Yesterday I reviewed Curse of the Black Widow, which was the essence of cheese - The UFO Incident is possible the anti-thesis of that, this is one of the best TV-movies out there, a very serious character study of a conversial case. It's told mainly in scenes where Betty and Barney is under hypnosis or telling their story - sometimes together and sometimes alone - to a psychotherapist. Slowly the truth, or the dreams, unfolds in a very clever way. We're treated to more and more details and during the end there's a fullblown UFO, grey aliens and stuff like that. But we never really know if this is what they experience or if it's just the stuff of dreams. 

No matter what you believe it's still a great, great story - and it's even better because James Earl Jones probably makes his best performance ever. He's totally into the character, which sometimes made me confused - because he's so real I could probably have bought the film if it was made like a documentary instead. Estelle Parsons is excellent also, but she has a special way of acting and it took me a time to get into her part of the story. At a first glance we're talking about over-acting here, but in all honesty, it's extremely realistic and looks like the real deal - because in real life this kind of behavior IS extreme. They both have such charisma together - which adds to the realism. I also think the second story of their life, them being a - for the time very rare - interracial couple. Something that was taboo at the time. This subject is touched upon several times, very subtle and very intelligent. It feels as much as a small, intimate drama about a couple's struggle for acception as a good old UFO romp. 

As usual there's no official DVD release, so you have to get it some other way... ;)

The Initiation of Sarah (Robert Day, 1978)

Carrie, the phenomenal feature  by Brian De Palma sure inspired many interesting flicks: Patrick, Jenifer, Evilspeak, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood and the cool The Initiation of Sarah, a TV-movie starring Kay Lenz, Morgan Fairchild, Morgan Brittany, Tisa Farrow and Shelley Winters. Take the basic premise of Carrie and put it on a college, but with sisterhood Lenz and Brittany as the family trying to keep together in a harsh, unprotecting world. I've always admired the TV-movies from the 70's, who with lack of budget had to rely on good ideas. Or sometimes, like this time, steal the idea from the blockbusters and do it the TV-way. 

Working horse Robert Day delivers a slick soap-like horror-tale which begins like any other Carrie-rip, but strays into the world of occultism and school drama. Lenz has the powers and Brittany is her mentally stronger sister. In college they're separated to different dorms and that makes the tension between them become stronger. The bullying from Brittany's "sisters" towards Lenz and other weaker characters in the school starts Lenz to really loose control. But someone sense her supernatural talents and wants to use her for something even more sinister...

The Initation of Sarah is a surprisingly complex horror story, on the surface just the same old TV-movie, but underneath a very touching drama between two sisters. Lenz is actually brilliant in her part - which I in all honesty didn't think she could to. Morgan Fairchild as her nemesis is an example of perfect casting. Fairchild embodies all the bitches we've ever met and becomes an enemy to behold. Another favorite, Shelley Winters, plays the house mother. She has an interesting style, the late Mrs. Winters. She almost becomes drunk of acting, inhales in odd places, gets lazy eyelids. Like she goes into a trance. This is in all parts I've seen her, at least where she plays a more complex character. That makes her a bit odd, but also very convincing - even if she's sometime chews the scenery a bit too much!

Sarah effectivly reenacts several key moments from Carrie, but uses them in a bit more creative way. The blood shower is now a scene where Lenzi gets mud and dirty thrown at her in huge amounts and the blazing last party of Carrie is now a maze on fire with the sisterhood of witches dying around her. For a TV-movie it looks gorgeous, but of course is way more kid-friendly than the cinematic opponent. 

This was also remade much later as a new TV-movie, but I haven't see it yet. But something tells me this is one of those movies that actually needs a remake from time to time, because the schools and educational system changes from time to time, so is the fashion and language. It's just not a story that needs to be seen in a different age period. It could be now and still be a lot of fun. 

Shout! have released a set with two movies, called TV TERRORS. They promised if people buy enough they will produce a second set. The thing is that TV-movies still doesn't sell that good to ordinary genre fans, which is a damn shame. There's so much good stuff in this genre!

Sharknado (Anthony C. Ferrante, 2013)

Sharknado is a little bit like Irwin Allen's masterpiece The Swarm: it's really not a masterpiece, but they've squeezed in so many absurd situation it actually becomes a masterpiece. You follow me? Yeah, Sharknado is like most SyFy original very flawed, but also made with a lot of heart. The Asylum is known as a factory of low budget trasherpieces. There's a risk with that kind of filmmaking, that it takes away the fun from making movies. The Asylum produces so many movies it's impossible for some of them to be made without heart or passion, but like this years excellent Hansel & Gretel and 2011's Zombie Apocalypse, Sharknado is made with a lot of love for the genre - and with a violent energy to really entertain it's audience. 

A storm is heading towards LA. Sharks get scared, swim to the beaches and get sucked up by the storm and the tornados. Sharknado. Ian Ziering and his pals must save his family and drenched in CGI water they fight themselves to Beverly Hills where even more dangers awaits! Ah, and John Heard has a glorfied cameo and I think we all once and for all can say that Tara Reid his her generations Shelley Winters - that's a fact!

I wonder if screenwriter Thunder Levin came up with the basic idea of this movie when he one afternoon got stuck in traffic in LA, because Sharknado is like a road movie, but set during one mail or so. There's pile-up's, screaming drivers, cops and chaos - the only thing who differs this situation from being a bad traffic day is the sharknado itself. Sharks trapped in a tornado. I love that idea even more now. I've read some jokes about what the sequel could be titled, one of them was Sharknami - but don't forget that last years Bait actually has a sharknami and ends up with sharks eating people inside a shopping mall! Also, let's not forget the Chinese blockbuster Super Typhoon brings a shark inside a house where the brave mayor battles it with his own fists! 

The effects ranges from absurdly cheap to decent, but not good. Which is what to expect from a movie by The Asylum produced for SyFy on a low budget. Some of the sharks seems to change size from angle to angle and the digital added water doesn't hold up well, except a few shots when a house is swallowed by a tsunami. There's also some practical effects - some of it quite gory - which is a welcome addition to this delicious mess. Ian Ziering looks constantly surprised, but is still a competent hero (he takes some time to warm up) and John Heard disappears way to early. Tara Reid, my personal favorite of  ex-superstars is good - and very Shelly Winters - as Ziering's wife. I'm happy to see a new disaster-lady taking over the genre. 

At the 48 minute mark Sharknado actually takes one step from the slightly confusing first half, focuses a bit on the adventure and introduces some atmosphere. The directing by Ferrante is by the numbers, but that's good numbers. It's competent storytelling and from time to time there's a glimmer of even more ambitious talent (the scenes around the school bus, the retired folks home etc). Another nice thing is that (except a few smaller jokes) it takes itself seriously. The actors are playing it straight, that's the only way to do a movie like this. After the (smaller) disappointment of Atlantic Rim (it needs more Mechas vs Monsters) Sharknado saves the day. 

Sharknado could easily have been a SharkNADA, but the frantic pace and the non-stop action - plus a couple of outrageous scenes featuring chainsaws, this is a very fun movie. It will never even come close to an Oscar, but it delivers that special SyFy flavored entertaining (which also can be quite smelly) we love so much. And hey, SyFy, here's a pitch you can't refuse:

 

SLOTH STORM!
 

The Beasts Are on the Streets (Peter Hunt, 1978)

The 70's was - of course - the decade of killer animals. Most of them are actually quite decent, including Robert Clouse's The Pack, John "Bud" Cardo's Kingdom of the Spiders and eh... William F. Claxton's Night of the Lepus! Oh, and lets not forget John Frankenheimer's awesome The Prophecy - fans of mutade killer bears rejoice!

The 70's was also the decade of extremely good TV-productions and the US was in front of almost everyone (they couldn't be beaten by UK of course), often with high concepts, slumming stars, cheap production values - and very effective scripts. The Beasts Are on the Streets is made by no other than Peter Hunt, the director of In Her Majesty's Secret Service, Gold (Roger Moore's best movie!) and second unit and a little bit of everyone on the early Bond-films. He also directed The Wild Geese II, but I have no memory of that one so I won't comment.

It starts of really good. A typical disaster movie set-up: lots of characters absolutely everywhere - the staff (including Philip Michael Thomas!) at  a zoo with African safari theme, some rednecks with guns fucking around on the motorway, a girl with an ugly hair cut, the local sheriff etc etc. You know the deal. It all leads up to a terrible accident when a truck filled with flammable liquid crashest through the fence of the zoo, out again and explodes in a sea of fire. This also means every damn animal in the zoo escapes! What's really dangerous are the lions, panters, bears... and ostriches! They start to attack people, first those involved in the big traffic accident and then a local tivoli! 

Yeah, as I wrote above: this starts really good - and the rest is quite good also, but after the truly spectacular first half most of the animals are caught and now there's just a lion mother looking for her cub (and an ostrich, confused as hell, trying to find a new life in the suburbs). This is good, nothing wrong with that. Some fine thrills when the stupid fucking girl with her ugly hair cut takes care of the cut without understanding that it's a damn lion cub! Oh, I hate her. Just look at "it": 

Brrr! Her cold, demonic face gives me the chills!

It's a pity the story doesn't go all the way with animal attacks over and over again. Now it kinda fizzles out during the last half, becoming more cute and nice and focusing on that little bitch up there. Still, I'll have to admit it's still a fine little production. Some of the animal attacks are actually among the best I've seen, especially for such a small production. Some of it looks quite dangerous, but I guess - like the sign in the beginning of the movie says - that no animals was harmed and yadayadayada. I really hope so. Some of it looks quite close to be a bit too dangerous for the animals, for example when a dune buggy almost crashes into a rhino!

Like always, this have no offical release (maybe on tape a thousand years ago?) and the version I've seen is a good-looking bootleg with fragments of commercial breaks from time to time. It's worth seeking up nevertheless, and if you're a fan of disaster and killer animal movies it's a must!

Condominium (Sidney Hayers, 1980)

Sometimes I think the sole reason for my existence in this world is to watch stuff that you out there never will take your time to watch. Because, yeah... it's more fun to talk about a three hour TV-disaster mini-series with Barbara Eden and Stuart Whitman than actually take time to see it your see it yourself, don't you agree? Yeah, I know you agree with me - but you don't dare to admit it!

Well, for years I searched for Condominium. It was aired only once, in 1980, and is one of the last rare disaster movies I've missed. Finally, last year, it showed up on the net in what looks to be a fifth generation copy. Someone recorded it in 1980 and probably put that tape in a box in the attic until some grandchild found it, decided it was cool to upload somewhere and here it is. Finally. Then it took me at least six months to see it, because a disaster soap starring Barbara Eden in terrible, terrible quality isn't something I prefer to see every day. I don't mind Barbara Eden or disaster soaps of course, but hey... the quality is outrageous!

Anyway, when the cat is out the rats dances on the tables as we say in Sweden, and tonight I took the brave chance to watch it. All three, long hours. Was it worth it? Hang on there and let's see...

At a luxery condominium by the sea all hell breaks loose when bad business suddenly makes the cost of living three times as expensive as the initial promise. A unscrupulous businessman (Stuart Whitman of course!) takes the chance to fuck around a little bit and decides to build an EXACT copy of the other building nearby. Suddenly our heroes have super-expensive apartments AND no exclusive right to the bay anymore. Life is tough for rich fuckers. So from now on, for two hours, we follow the inhabitants in the condo. From the super-rich old man with his young trophy wife wife, the middle-aged republican and his aggressive Italian wife, the hunky hero with his mentally unstable wife and of course the douchebag man with his submissive wife and a bunch of other man/wife combo's and then we see them talk and talk and talk and talk.... without knowing that a storm is coming closer! What will happen? Is the rumours true about the construction of the condo apartment complex? Will it collapse when the hurrican hits? Will they be able to finish their drinks before it's too late?!

Oh, this is one mega-soap. Believe me. And I loved every boring minute of it! There's so much soapish intrigue, so much toupés and hair extensions, shallow characters and clichéd dialogue that it's very hard not to fucking adore it! Because strangely enough it never seems that long. The pacing is fine, the actors are good and in-between all the elderly ex-stars slumming in yet another TV-productions there's a fine TV-drama. Yeah. I'm not kidding. Sure, it's silly as hell. But there's something touching with these dreamers, these innocent rich people believing this house is the sole important place in the world. It's like watching scifi. Absurd, but somehow totally believable. It even have a very unexpected lesbian twist during the last half - and the assholes get what they deserves! Like Devin Kelly wrote on Facebook today, why must there always be a drunken party just when the hurrican hits? It's the same thing in Jan Troell's 1979 fiasco The Hurricane. Why not take the bottle and pretend like nothing is happening when shit hit the fan... sounds like a good plan to me.

Yeah I know. The DISASTER. I'm coming to that now. It's of course the highlight of the show. Most of the second half is focused on the storm and the destruction. A lot of stock footage, but pretty well edited into the rest of the material (but the quality could have fooled me, everything looks like crap in the version I found!). But like all good disaster they have some excellent miniatures collapsing at the end. It's always hard to make water look okay in a miniature setting, but here it looks fine - and the final piece of destruction could have been a part of a bigger Hollywood movie from the same time. Some blood also! 

Condominium is a mini-series for us who loves and craves old-style disaster productions. I wish this could find its way to disc or download, but restored and with stellar quality. I doubt that will ever be, but stranger thing's have happen so far in our mysterious world. And remember, everything with Stuart Whitman is worth watching. 

That's a fact. 

And yeah, I put two clips up on Vine. Here they are:

Gargoyles (Bill L. Norton, 1972)

Gargoyles was aired 21th of November, 1972, I guess as the CBS Late Movie. Shot in 18 days with one single camera and having a script way too ambitious for such a project - it could have been a disaster, but in the end it's one of the true classics of American television - not perfect, I'll get back to that, but still awesome all these years after! Maybe the awesomeness comes from Stan Winston's cool creatures, but the storytelling itself isn't bad at all, even if it kinda fizzles out towards then.

Cornel Wilde is paleontologist Dr. Mercer Boley, he and his daughter Diana (Jennifer Salt) meets up for a road trip. Mercer and his wife is divorced and it was a long time since he met his daughter. But there's one thing to do on the road, to drop by an old man who claims to have something very unique for Mercer's research: the skeleton of a Gargoyle! Mercer is an open-minded scientist and decides to take a look at it - but something goes wrong and suddenly the house is attacked from all side by real, living Gargoyles! They escape, but manages to bring the Gargoyle skull with them... what they don't know is that the monsters wants their friend back, and soon they're chased and they want Diana specifically! 

It might be hard to understand by reading my synopsis, but I wonder if Wes Craven saw this TV-movie and had it in mind when he wrote The Hills Have Eyes? There is some similarites actually, not only the location. But that's probably just my imagination. The first half is a lot of fun, it goes directly into action, with some very cool attacks. The second half feels less exciting, mostly because we get to know the Gargoyle clan a bit more and it suddenly becomes more fantasy - with a pretty lame kidnapping-of-the-daughter-thingie that feels a bit too lame compared to the awesome start. It's not bad, make no mistake about it, it just becomes less fun. 

Stan Winson's creatures are interesting. The faces actually looks fantastic - with a slight unrealistic, plastic look - but thaty's okay with me. What's even more cool is how all of them look different, and if that's because of different species of Gargoyle or just different personalities I have no idea. The lead monster looks like a devil and a friend of his looks more like a bird, with a beak and all. And so on. It's very imaginative stuff. What's worse is the bodies, which just looks like diving suits with color and some fleshy details attached. 

I'm not entirely sure the slow-mo added to the monster-sequences works either. They did that to try to change the movements of the monsters, but now it just looks kinda awkward. 

Just a lot of whining yeah? Forget about it, this is one cool and fun movie. It's not perfect, but the passion is there and it has enough interesting scenes to become a television classic. Why not put together a double feature with this one and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) at home? I'm sure it will be the best movie night in a long time!

Amityville: The Evil Escapes (Sandor Stern, 1989)

Sandor Stern, the screenwriter of the first Amityville movie here follows up with - so far - the cheesiest (part 4) sequel in the franchise so far. That might not be a bad thing actually, but it's hardly the best thing also. By now the Amityville Horror House feels like just another story squeezed together with Bigfoot, UFO, Atlantis and Anthony Hopkins being a good actor, but in the 70's it was da shit! Personally I love stuff like that and I read and watch everything related to the mysterious - even if I don't believe in any of it. But it's fun and it triggers the imagination.

With Amityville it feels a bit strange, because it's so closely connected to christianity. I've seen enough self-righteous priests win over evil in these movies I'm getting extra happy every time there's a twist ending revealing that evil... has escaped!

And that's exactly what happens in Amityville: The Evil Escapes. Just not in a cool way. Instead our favorite demon/Satan/thingie chooses the ugliest lamp EVER to possess and of course he gets sold at a flea market into a new home. If I become an evil spirit I will never choose a lamp (A sofa on the other hand...) to escape in! The new family has the normal freaky little girl who starts seeing her dead dad everywhere, an annoying boy, the mother trying to cope with her mother and of course that damn freaky lamp doing it's best to look ugly. Soon people gets hurt or gets killed in weird ways and of course there's a friggin' priest around the corner just waiting to do some exorcism!

Amityville: The Evil Escapes is SOOOOOO silly. But the slick TV-production look of it looks nice and it's hardly boring. A movie about a possessed ugly lamp can never be boring. I was a little bit afraid that this being a TV-production meant it would be very lame, but to my surprise it has a couple of fun deaths and some very mild gore that spices up everything. It's a well-made production, looks expensive - but the cheese-level is extreme! Just imagine the final showdown between the priest and the lamp... I'm not sure I, as a rather experienced actor nowadays, could do that scene without having a big smile on my face. It also have a quite disturbing death. A man is stuck inside the house somewhere, between the floors and is getting drowned in a black liquid (after first getting a chopped of hand in his face). It's not exactly graphic, but just the thought of getting stuck somewhere and being forced to swallow black goo fucks up my imagination.  

It's a fun movie, a good movie if you - like me - consider an entertaining movie a good movie. It won't scare you and it's probably too silly for the hardcore horror fans, but for a Sunday morning it delivers a very fun experience. 

And talking about a twist ending... I'm sorry, but this is a spoiler. Just beware of the... CAT!

Home for the Holidays (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1972)

It's TV-time again here at Ex-Ninja, and it involves several veterans in the genre. Director John Llewellyn Moxey, writer Joseph Stefano and the still very young Sally Field! I would say, so far, that Home for the Holidays is one of the slickest and best produced TV-thrillers I've seen so far. It's not the most spectacular, but Stefan's script is excellent - from the mystery viewpoint to the edgy dialogue and very human and interestning characters.

Four sisters is called home to their dying father (played by a very elderly Walter Brennan, who died in 1974). In the letter he claims to be slowly poisoned to death by his new, younger, wife Elizabeth (Julie Harris, no less!). He's still a bastard and its easy to see why all his daughters left home early, but still - he's their blood and soon there's very different opinion if he's lying to get them home or if something really sinister is happening... everything is just a typical family melodrama until a killer - dressed in a yellow raincoat and armed with a hayfork - starts killing them off one by one!

Home for the Holidays almost works as a precursor to the slasher cinema with it's stylized killer and desolate location. Just like Stefano did with Robert Bloch's Psycho 12 years earlier. But it's foremost a typical and cozy TV-movie, one of ABC's productions - produced by Aaron Spelling. It has its share of kills, but here we have better character than usual. All sisters are very well-defined personalities. We have the drunken Frederica (Jessica Walter), the cold and shallow Joanna (Jill Haworth), the mature and overprotective Alex (Eleanor Parker) and the young and naive Christine (Sally Field). It's a brilliant cast and the almost non-existent men in the story feels fresh and logical. It takes a brilliant writer like Stefan to produce a story about interesting women. Something he's done before and after, but this is still his best when it comes this.

Another detail I like is how this is a Christmas movie (it was first aired November 28, 1972 on ABC) and it has no snow! It was meant to have a lot of snow, but the tight schooting schedule and the low budget forced the filmmakers to make it rain instead of snowing - which gives it a feeling of dread and adds a failure to this family reunion. Something that wasn't meant to work as good suddenly made it even better. 

What triggers my imagination even more, and it's something that makes Home for the Holidays even better, is the ambiguous ending. Not that the main mystery is hard to explain, it's there and it's clear. But like Jud Taylor's dark and original TV-movie Revenge (1971, starring Shelley Winters, Stuart Whitman and Bradford Dillman) there's something more that never is explained. It suddenly leaves everything open to something more, something evil - or is it evil? Maybe it's a good thing in the end? We will never now and that's what I love about movies like this. 

I don't want stuff written on my nose, so to speak. 

Not so much else to write without spoiling the whole show. I hope you all get a chance to be entertained by this thriller one day... or dark, stormy, rainy night...

She became Satan's plaything! Good Against Evil (Paul Wendkos, 1977)

Here at Ex-Ninja we're (which means me, only one poor fucker) all friends of Jimmy Sangster, the brilliant British writer who wrote some of Hammer's best stuff and then had a long career in nifty, interesting TV-movies for the American market. There's a couple of his earlier works here at the blog, just search this names, but today I'm gonna write a little bit abotu Good Against Evil, a 1977 TV-pilot that was meant to be a series starring Dack Rambo (is that a name of a gay porn star or not?) as the skeptic young man and the asshole-ish priest played by the wonderful character actor Dan O'Herlihy solving satanic mysteries or something like that. You know the deal. People was crazy during that time and far into the eighties, believing there was devil worshipper around every corner. 

Good Against Evil is bascially a mix between Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, but without the intelligence. Nothing bad with that, it's entertainment,  but Sangster probably slept over his typewriter and accidentally wrote this - that's how good he was. It starts in 1955, our beloved devil worshippers - among them the leader, played by the always brilliant Richard Lynch - just gotten themselve a baby! So cute! Anyway, somehow this baby girl is antichrist - or something - and they're gonna spend their life making hers the best one ever. In 1977 she's a successful designer, but after literary bumping into a writer, the Rambo guy, she falls in loves and soon they plans to marry - in a church! But Richard Lynch wants something else, kidnaps here and the mystery is on!

By 1977 the TV-movies had become far more mainstream and simple and Good Against Evil is a good example of that. It's not especially original or have any fantastic twists, it's a human drama set against a backdrop of evil devil worshippers. Because it's cool they have an exorcism sequence at the end and lots of beautiful satanic props being used by the antagonists! I bet there's a warehouse in LA pack with all the stuffed used in Satan-themed horro movies from the 70's! Give me the key please. I will live there from now on. The best thing with the whole movie is Richard Lynch who gives everything he gots even if he's quite underwritten. I love when they worship the devil in the desert (just look at The Devil's Rain) and of course he's out there, praying and looking sinister. Brilliant. 

And yes, the hero-priest is an asshole. I always had problems with assholes in movies, especially if they're priests. They should be kill early on, but this guy - he's the hero and he's a fucking bully. I would have kicked him out of my fancy San Francisco house directly if I was Dack Rambo! With that name I would shoot him directly to hell with a bazooka! Naked, because Dack Rambo is a gay porn name. IMHO.

Don't expect gore, violence or sex. This is a very kind-hearted TV-movie, but still... it's cozy the way American TV-movies from the 70's could be. Very cozy, perfect for a Sunday morning or a lazy afternoon. The UK DVD has decent picture quality also, which helps a lot. Many of these films are released in terrible editions - if we're not talking about Warner Archive who's blessed us with a lot of fine releases since they started. I would upgrade Good Against Evil if someone released a better version, without a doubt. 

I've written many words about a so-so TV-movie. But that's me, can't friggin' stop myself! 

Movie of the Week: Trapped (Frank De Felitta, 1973)

I have a hard time writing this review, because I'm listening to David Bowie's new song The Stars (Are Out Tonight), which like the first song from the new album, Where Are We Now?, just is plain brilliant. In my humble opinion of course, but I'm a Bowie fan since my father brainwashed me with his music during the eighties (which might explain my spoft spot for later music, not so much a fan of his 70's work). At the same time I see Josh Brolin in front of me, from Planet Terror, a grumpy old bastard - and how much he looks like his father James in Trapped.

Ah, just writing about Bowie made it easier to continue. So read on baby, read on. 

The story is simple, but it's packed with nice ideas that makes everything much more tense. James Brolin, looking better than ever, is robbed visiting the toilet at a big department store - where he is to buy a doll for his daughter - and left there after closing time. The store as six dangerous dogs - five of them Dobermans - guarding the place and they are both angry and (it seems) quite hungry! Now he has to get down to the ground floor and get help! 

Yeah, the story is so damn simple, but writer (also director) Frank De Felitta has fun with the concept and gives Brolin (or Chuck Brenner, as his name is in the movie) more problems than he asked for. First of all, he has a concusion, which means he has a terrible headache and feels violently dizzy - and that in combination with angry dogs makes it even harder to survive. During the first dog attack he also gets bitten in the leg and he can't top the blood! It's a pale an dizzy Brolin we see getting from floor to floor with a new killer dog on each one of them.

 But he's not alone. De Felitta introduces Brenner's ex-wife early on, and her new husband, and this is where it gets really interesting: the new husband is the one who gets worried about Chuck, while the ex-wife is dismissive about the whole thing. Between these two characters (played by Susan Clark and Earl Holliman, both fantastic in their parts!) there's also an ongoing quarrel, and they're analyzing their relationship at the same time without even hinting that they will breake up and Susan and James will fall in love again.

I'm not sure you understand what I mean, but there's a realistic, non-clichéd sub-story here, which I've rarely seen in any TV-movie before. A nice surprise.

This isn't the only dog-movie made during the 70's. The best one is Robert Clouse's The Pack, Day of the Animals has a good part with killer dogs, Devil Dog is fantastic cheese, Dogs is a movie I haven't seen yet - but I will, I promise. I still claim that The Pack was remade as the surprisingly decent DTV movie The Breed in 2006. Dogs is a good animal for this kind of movies. The dogs in Trapped behaves like dangerous guard dogs and the attacks is very effective and well-done. Sometimes you see their waving and happy tails, obviously enjoying chasing James Brolin around (who doesn't?). 

Trapped is a damn good Movie of the Week, combining tension with believable melodrama. And dogs. And James Brolin with an unbuttoned shirt. Nice.