LISTS… Ten Films That Are Beyond Belief

#1980s #1970s #AllPosts

 

Where do I begin?

 

My list of 10 some kind of weird movies with A-listers from the big and wee screens.

 

Beyond Evil

The Evil

 

It is not every day that I get a personal invite to a blogathon, where the blogathon topic helps me write about 10 films from my review and reviewed list. This time the mission which I chose to accept, was to write about a list of between 1 and 10 weird movies.. so I plonked on concentrating on 3 in full, but adding 7 further recommendations as I gittered too much about these three… and as you know weird films are my bag.

So I did just that with the fruits of my labour and that “labour” was at times in my viewing, including watching the films concerned. This list was selected after consulting my viewing partner in crime, Darlin Husband. Darlin Husband now gets a huge shout-out here for discovering all of these movies and insisting I watch them. Needless to say, there are plenty of films and TV movies left for future reviews.

So firstly here are 3 of the crazier Horror films we’ve watched and loved from that never-ending list of those to be reviewed films that can be described as off-the-wall, quirky and offbeat for starters…

 

The Evil (1978)…

The Evil (1978) – Official Trailer, The Scream Factory

The married Arnolds –  a bearded psychiatrist, C.J. (Richard Crenna) and his young doctor wife, Caroline (Joanne Pettet) – move to a dilapidated mansion which was once owned by a General during the Civil War. This couple wants to open this now abandoned building as a drug rehabilitation centre. This is despite it being built on land containing Native American burial ground hot sulphur pits. What could possibly go right, after C.J. employs some volunteers to help them refurbish it?

The craziness of this plot is at times low-key and includes unseen forces that rip off women’s clothes (as it’s the 1970s), demon possession, Civil War General ghosts, dangerous looking dogs and ye olde curses. Note these make up the less kooky bits of the story. The film turns up the wacky horror with those endless grisly deaths in crazier – read more inventive – ways than Damien: Omen II (1978) with spontaneous combustion heading the chart. (Now try that Damien!).

Things get even more bizarre as it’s full tilt unintentional comedy horror after C.J. unleashes a benighted evil spirit, after opening a trap door. This trap door leads to a portal that takes you to hell, leading up to those final scenes where it goes er… Devilishly bonkers. Believe me, its ending is worth the wait and it has to go down as a very, very bizarre and unexpected ending.

Despite the increasingly off-kilter plot, Crenna and Pettet manage to keep a poker straight face in the face of the more “comic” adversity thrown at them from all angles. The pair even make it through that offbeat ending without a giggle, which is not as easy as it sounds. But then to be fair, this is the actor who acted alongside the ludicrous special effects from Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978). Don’t believe the “laughter turned into screams” baloney that the trailer suggests – it’s more like the other way around…

Filming took place in a “mansion” which was, in fact, Montezuma Castle, a Queen Anne styled hotel situated outside Las Vegas, New Mexico. At the time of filming, this hotel had fallen into disarray and was rented out to the filmmakers of this movie. Wikipedia adds HERE the first two hotels on this site burned down, and that guests at the hotel included American Presidents, British royalty and nobility, European leaders and even the American outlaw, Jesse James.

 

Beyond Evil (1980)…

Beyond Evil (1980) [Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray Promo Trailer], Vinegar Syndrome

This film is set – and was mostly filmed – on an island situated near the Philippines. It stars John Saxon as Larry and Lynda Day George as his on-screen wife, Barbara Andrews. The couple has plans to move to a new condo on this island. However, instead, they are moved to a haunted mansion, the ominously named Casa Fortuna. This is in a convoluted storyline that translates as for plot convenience. Or in a more likely scenario, this was because the other more expensive options were way out of the budget after getting Saxon to head the cast (which incidentally also includes the director’s wife).

Anyway, it’s believed that long before the Andrews arrived on the island, an unhappily married couple, Alma and her adulterous husband Estaban Martin lived in Casa Fortuna. This couple killed each other and the island folk believe that Alma was into the occult and witchcraft and made a pact with the Devil, so no one goes near the place. In time, Barbara begins to see and hear a woman who she believes is Alma. So with Barbara hearing bizarre chants and seeing weird visions, Larry wisely asks a doctor for help.

The doctor believes Alma is trying to possess Barbara after he notices one of Barbara’s fingers looks a bit odd (!). After this finger then becomes red and swollen… this apparently indicates she has been possessed by this dead woman who is now out for revenge. This has to be the craziest medical diagnosis in film ever. Poor old Larry has to help his wife before the shit really hits the fan… and he asks their neighbours, who by a stroke of luck are into “healing” for their assistance.

John Saxon as the husband in this horror has a permanently perplexed look on his face as his on-screen wife impersonates Linda Blair from The Exorcist (1973) and the neon green special effects reign supreme. Barbara’s possession leads to some more random behaviours and outlandish plot development. This is combined with groovy early 1980s special effects and some very hammed-up acting from Lynda Day George. She has never been in such a bonkers movie and she did Cruise into Terror (1978)!

One of the weirdest things about it is that for apparently no apparent reason the film proudly announces – in the written credits – that the restaurant scenes were filmed in California. This I suspect was part of a plea bargain from John Saxon…

 

Grizzly II: The Revenge (1983) / (2020)…

Grizzly II. Revenge Official Trailer (2020), GB GB International

So you thought that Louise Fletcher had done some crazy movies after seeing The Stepford Husbands (1996). There she was supported by Sarah Douglas and Donna Mills in this unintentionally fun spin-off from the original movie. But I digress…  For this film, Grizzly II: The Revenge think more of a The Asylum productions do a Grizzly (1976) homage. The plot is kinda given away in the alternate titles of Grizzly II: The Predator and Grizzly II:. The Concert. 

This sequel tells how after a bear’s cubs are killed, a bear goes on revenge in Yellowstone National Park. This location is not I stress, the home of Yogi and Boo-Boo. Nor is this film a spin-off featuring Yogi and his girlfriend Cindy where Yogi stars in a cartoon homage to a Charles Bronson movie. Which would be just as bizarre.

Grizzly II: The Revenge may seem on first impression as a pretty by the numbers man vs nature movie. It has a plot that is similar to Orca (1977) but with George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen vs a bear and not Richard Harris, Bo Derek and Charlotte Rampling vs a whale. Orca is just as far-fetched and at times looks like lost footage from a David Attenborough nature documentary in those whale-related scenes). But I digress.

However, the writers add that Yellowstone Park is due to hold a rock concert with an expected 50,000 attendees. Louise Fletcher is the organiser of this musical event – think the Mayor in Jaws (1975) but played by Nurse Ratched, rather than Bob Geldof – then this plot seems, just a wee bit on the quirky side. Also, those billed then young movie stars listed earlier are now er ageing A-listers who are seen and killed off rather too quickly, and this film ended production twice.

After the first day of filming the original version, the producer left the set and was later discovered to be in jail. Then after the 1983 movie was shelved for over 30 years, it was completed much later in 2020. The weirdest fact in the plot is when the bear attacks its victims during this film, this is obviously stock footage and it is interspersed by a lot of random unknown bands singing full musical numbers… and John Rhys Davis steals the movie because George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen are no longer in the movie.

I hope you kept your eyes peeled, as you will note all of these movies are headed by some fabulous A lister casts. So they are the best kind of weird movie. Finally, to paraphrase what a Blue Peter (1958-) presenter would say, these are the ones I reviewed earlier with 7 honourable mentions of films from TV and the cinema. These posts can be discovered from my previously reviewed posts and bring this total to 10… so click and enjoy…

Airport 80: The Concorde (1980)… George Kennedy’s final foray into the Airport franchise has him now as pilot of the plane, with his sexist 1970s jokes, 2 different flight-related disasters, a cast including Eddie Albert, Charo and Sybil Danning and the only reason to watch it… Alain Delon in a pilot uniform.

The Astral Factor (1978)… Robert Foxworth is a detective who is on the hunt to find an invisible serial killer who strangles women. Nuff said.

Electric Dreams (1984)… More of an MTV musical tribute than Grizzly II, it’s about a computer who falls in love, but it’s complicated. Bud Cort is the voice of the computer in his wisely chosen, not seen but heard role.

The Manitou (1978)… Man vs the titular Manitou starring Tony Curtis and Stella Stevens who take the plot way too seriously.

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978)… Richard Crenna learns the hard way that you shouldn’t buy a cute puppy for your wife and kids.

Cruise into Terror (1978)… A tiny Egyptian sarcophagus terrifies an Aaron Spelling crew including Dirk Benedict and a passenger list cast including Ray Milland, Stella Stevens and John Forsythe.

The Stepford Husbands (1996)… A role reversal of The Stepford Wives (1972) which was executed with a possible tongue-in-cheek plot and cast headed by Louise Fletcher.

I’ll end with this fabulous quote from an article about Grizzly II – and is how The Guardian described this travesty – which I believe sums up not just this film for me, but all for all those films reviewed and listed…

Here’s a film that for decades has been nothing more than a rumour: a jaw-dropping, so-bad-it’s-bad meisterwerk to be savoured by masochists and awfulness connoisseurs. Watching it turned my face into a replica of Munch’s The Scream.

And those my dear reader are my recommendations for those films that come with true facts and have plots of pure fiction… 

 

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Weirdest Movies Blogathon 2023, No 8 

This post was added to Surreal Movies and TV Blog‘s Weirdest Movies Blogathon. Other posts with this cast include The Evil leads Richard Crenna stars in Devil Dog: Hound from Hell. Joanna Pettet in Hotel, The Fall Guy, Knots Landing, Tales from the Unexpected, and Charlie’s Angels.  Beyond Evil’s Lynda Day George starred in Fantasy Island and Cruise into Terror. John Saxon in Murder She Wrote, The Ray Bradbury Theatre, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Glitter, Magnum PI, Wonder Woman and Hotel. Grizzly II’s Charlie Sheen stars in Ferris Buellers Day Off and Catchfire. George Clooney in One Fine Day and Burn After Reading. Laura Dern in Frasier. 

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