Johnny LaRue's Crane Shot: I Knew I'd Moved In A Haunted House

I Knew I'd Moved In A Haunted House

Shout Factory's latest in its way cool series of Roger Corman Cult Classics.well, neither film is a cult classic nor did Corman have a lot to do with them. But you could do a lot worse for a night of amusement than follow THE Vicious and TWICE DEAD, both haunted house thrillers made a decade apart.

HE Wickedness was one of director Gus Trikonis` (THE SWINGING BARMAIDS) last feature films before entering a busy career in television. Released by Roger Corman`s New World Pictures in 1978 with an R rating, THE Wickedness is a somewhat hokey haunted-house movie with ethereal spirits, floating people and objects, a thunderstorm, shutters that rattle in the night, a demonic dog, an invisible rapist, and other tried-and-true ghost-story gimmicks. It also piles up a nice body count using a range of performers who should be quite familiar to fans of Crappy Movies.The late Richard Crenna, a dependable leading man who bounced back and off between tv and features with cool and who starred in the laugh-tastic DEVIL DOG: THE Trace OF Hades the same class as THE EVIL, toplines as C.J. Arnold, a professor of psychology who rents a nervous old house as the website for his new drug rehabilitation center. In reality, Trikonis and producer Ed Carlin secured as their prime location a gorgeous 19th-century structure near Las Vegas, New Mexico called Montezuma Castle. It`s gigantic, dark, and creepy, giving Trikonis plenty of air to go with.The site needs to be cleaned up, so C.J. along with his gorgeous wife Caroline (Joanna Pettet), recruits a little grouping of friends and students to pass the summer getting the office set for business: physicist Raymond Guy (Andrew Prine) and his student/girlfriend Laurie (Mary Louise Weller, ANIMAL HOUSE); ex-junkie Felicia (Lynne Moody, one of the innocents sent to Robert Reed`s corrupt prison in NIGHTMARE IN BADHAM COUNTY); pet lover Mary (Cassie Yates, THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND); joker Pete (George O`Hanlon Jr. whose mother was the sound of George Jetson); and handyman Dwight (Robert Viharo, star of BARE KNUCKLES).Danger erupts almost immediately. Well, even before that, as a drunken handyman is incinerated by the furnace during the opening titles. After Crenna`s group arrives, all Hell-literally-breaks loose after C.J. accidentally unlocks a Door to Hell (where`s Lin Ye Tang when you want him?) hidden in the basement. The doors and shutters lock, the window glass becomes unbreakable, and there`s no way out of the house. While agnostic C.J. tries to figure out a coherent explanation for everything, various characters are murdered in creative ways-dog attack, electrocution, power saw, mud. Felicia is stripped to her underwear and battered about by an unseen force. Only Caroline has something resembling a clue, since she`s the sole one who can see the specter of the house`s previous resident as he shambles about.Eventually, the survivors end up in the fog-filled basement pit, where they encounter none other than Satan himself (!), dressed in whiteness and sitting atop a clean throne in a white room (no black curtains) brimming with dry ice. You may be surprised to take the Deuce is fat and looks a lot like Victor Buono. Reportedly, some prints of THE Vicious are missing all Buono`s scenes, meaning, I guess, that Crenna and Pettet are capable to dig the doorway to Sin and engage it without lots of a hitch. It`s true that the culmination is a little silly, with Crenna forced to his knees in trouble and Pettet leaping out of the fog to jam a pointy iron cross into the breast of a horned Buono, but, gee, that`s kind of the point, isn`t it?Ten days later, Corman released TWICE DEAD under his Concorde label. Whereas most low-budget horror was going direct to videocassette in 1988, Corman managed to squeeze TWICE DEAD-and his early films-into theaters, albeit regionally and seldom for more than a week or two.The Cates family-dad Harry (Sam Melville from THE ROOKIES), mom Sylvia (Brooke Bundy from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET sequels), son Scott (Tom Breznahan of THE BRAIN), and daughter Robin (NIGHT OF THE CREEPS` lovely Jill Whitlow)move into a nervous old home where an actor named Tyler Walker (HALLOWEEN 5`s Jonathan Chapin) committed suicide fifty years earlier. Now, director Bert Dragin (SUMMER CAMP NIGHTMARE) and his co-writer Robert McDonnell could have interpreted this assumption in 50 different directions, but I didn`t predict this one. Because Robin is the spitting image of Walker`s former lover, whose marriage to Harry`s uncle inspired the actor`s suicide, Walker`s spirit comes to spirit to defeat a ring of extremely unmenacing punks who invade the Cates house one night while the parents are away. This is a very slight thriller with some decent stunts and gore effects, though the game doesn`t kick in until very recent in the film. Chapin also plays one of the punks, which is an interesting idea. The book isn`t really good, and the intentional humor is lame. What`s unintentionally amusing is the flirty relationship between siblings Scott and Robin, probably because the cute performers were attracted to each other in actual life.I acknowledge the Cates` house exterior from other low-budget movies, including Fred Olen Ray`s EVIL TOONS. Melville was a handsome, rugged guy similar to James Stacy (LANCER). He was occasionally playing the ex-husband of his ROOKIES co-star Kate Jackson in her SCARECROW AND MRS. KING series at the time TWICE DEAD was made, but died the year after its expiration at age 53.Shout Factory produced the DVD with its usual aplomb, including a commentary track for each film. Walt Olsen moderates the tracks with his typical inanity, but the filmmakers involved do a nice job of providing information in an entertaining style. Trikonis, writer Donald Thompson, and cinematographer Mario DiLeo do the magic on THE EVIL; Trikonis knows his staff, but surprisingly knows little around THE EVIL's post-production and release. For TWICE DEAD, it's Dragin and Breznahan, both nice, smart guys, on the track, which is more entertaining than the movie itself.Other extras include theatrical and TV trailers for THE EVIL, trailers for other drive-in flicks (including THE TERROR WITHIN, an upcoming Roger Corman Cult Classic), and a new audience with Jill Whitlow, still dreamy in her 40s.