Tag Archives: Retro horror

WTF Review: “Look What’s Happened To Rosemary’s Baby”

Image August 2, 2021 Patti PaulterGeist 2 Comments

In 1968, Roman Polanski shocked the cinema world with Rosemary’s Baby, starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, and Sidney Blackmer. Seeming rather tame to today’s standards, the age-old story of trading eternal damnation of your soul for a bit of luxury was fresh entertainment over 50 years ago and remains a tried and true horror classic to the genre that the movie helped progress into more risky territory. So why not give it a worthy sequel, eh ? What became of little Adrian Woodhouse and his Antichrist fate?

Umm. Hmm.

Now, I hear a lot of shit about The Exorcist II: The Heretic being the worst sequel of all time- but I’d challenge anyone that makes that statement has surely never seen Look What’s Happened To Rosemary’s Baby. I had only found out about this sequel a few years ago, and then compeletly forgot about it’s existence until a conversation with my step-mother who was looking for the film- which understandably, had fallen into obscurity. BUT, when there’s a will, there’s a way and thank goddess for YouTube where I found a full version of the movie to indulge my curiosity.

Man. I wished I hadn’t.

The film made as a special Halloween presentation airing on ABC, premiered on October 29, 1976 continues the story of Rosemary, Guy, and their bastard Antichrist child, Adrian- whom Rosemary refers to as Andrew which is what his name had intended to be before he was reveled to be the spawn of Satan. Rosemary (this time played by Patty Duke) and “Andrew” have been lying low with Minnie and Roman (Ruth Gordon and Ray Milland) as with the rest of the cult for the past eight years. The pair flee to LA in the hopes of finding ex-husband Guy Woodhouse (George Maharis) and demanding help. However, “Andrew” is kidnapped by a curious woman who had promised help to Rosemary and the little satanic spawn while running on the road and we never see Rosemary again during the rest of the film.

Fast-forward a few years where Adrian (Stephen McHattie), as he is now being called, is a party rock star with hair that even 1978 John Travolta would envy and has all the looks of what you would envision a cocaine- fueled disco dickhead would look like. At the very least, they left out the cliché medallion off his half-exposed chest. He is still living with his abductor, Ellen, who he obviously has no clue of who she truly is. Minnie and Roman re-appear on the eve of Adrian’s non-specified-age birthday; where they intend to consecrate Adrian’s birthright and move forward only if he hasn’t been too tainted as they put it and his vessel can fully embody his demonic destiny. Following a few rituals and bizarre dream sequences, this turns into one real drugged-out comatose of a film. Now normally I can appreciate that fuzzy 70s’ B-Grade artistic experimental film, but this is a fucked up mess. It’s almost trying to be like De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise, but far less interesting and done very badly . Adrian with white face paint and a black vest strutting across dance floors to a funky disco, and through a crowd of mindless disco-dancing nimrods as the Castevets, Guy, and the cult stare on as though they are mesmerized by his booty shakes and dream-like Pazuzu transformations is really… something.

I suppose the only redeeming quality to the movie is that Guy Woodhouse gets what he finally fucking deserves, but that’s about the best it gets. It truly doesn’t surprise me that a good majority of fans have never even heard of this film, as it seems to be just an embarrassment to the legacy of what is considered, one of the greatest horror films of all time. If you want a real sequel, I suggest picking up Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin.

Or.. If you dare, here’s the movie generously uploaded by Youtuber Ethan Terra. Either way, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

News

[VIDEO] The Deleted Scene From “A Nightmare On Elm Street” That Reveals Nancy Had a Sibling

Image July 24, 2021 Patti PaulterGeist 1 Comment

Man. The deeper impact this deleted scene from A Nightmare On Elm Street gives to the word “private justice”, should have been left in.

The fact that Freddy-Mania took over the 80s’ and the unforgiving character that lived off the blood of children became a pop-culture phenomenon, kind of blows my mind. I was totally a part of the Freddy Fandom as a kid and still am to this day. However, thinking back now as an adult how Freddy was mass marketed to children from bootleg toys, plastic Halloween costumes, horror hotlines, and even a stint on MTV, just goes to show he was a true force to be reckoned with the future of America.

Yes. We are the generation that holds a child-murderer as a GOD in the genre and we make no apologies for it.

But I kind of feel bad about it now and you might too after learning that Nancy wasn’t always an only child. In fact, Freddy killed him/her. And is what drove Nancy’s parents to the brink of madness in doing what they did to him.

Knowing this now, the final battle between Nancy and Freddy makes it that much more personal; as it would for just about anyone that had a family member killed by a son of a thousand maniacs. Why Wes Craven chose to discredit it entirely and keep this particular dialogue out of the scene between Nancy and her mother Marge in the basement (of which most of the rest was kept in the movie), I suppose we might not ever know. But it surely adds a lot more hatred between the characters. In the rough cut of the scene provided by YouTube Channel Gabi Ferretti below, it also hints Nancy’s friends’ Rod, Tina, and Glen also had siblings that were murdered by the cruelty of Krueger- which would lead us into the private justice and mob mentality nature of his origins. Also, it’s sort of full-circle that the remaining siblings are so close-knit now. Or were rather as they were picked off one by one in the movie.

This could have changed the whole tone of the film, but personally I feel like it should have been kept in. It just adds to the cruelty that really was Krueger. Then again, had they gone into a deeper explanation painting a picture of his pure evil, we may have never had lunchboxes with Freddy’s face on them as kids.

What do you think?

Editorials

The Psychology Of The Scare: Gerontophobia In Horror Films

Image July 17, 2021 Patti PaulterGeist Leave a comment

I’ve always been under the impression horror is what you make of it. Stories and films relay on our innermost fears and phobias to make an impression with the viewer, hence the art of the scare. I don’t care if you’re badass Kurt Russell or Samuel L. Jackson, everyone has one thing or another that makes them uncomfortable.

Horror films have utilized a wide-range of phobias to attract audiences to give them the “safe” scare adrenaline rush. Sub-genre horror movies with the focus on clowns, kids, psychological warfare are some of the most popular among fanfare. However personally speaking, the use of older folks in horror films as the core of fears is some of the most powerful I’ve seen – and most effective. GERONTOPHOBIA, which means the fear of elders or aging, is actually a fairly common fear amongst the populous. We associate looking at our elders with our own mortality and it can be a hard pill to swallow- so we place a heavy fear on it. As authoritarian as it sounds to place our once care-givers who have aged in years at the center of what we fear most sounds inhuman at best, in horror cinema it works to a degree; and all too well.

I mean, who WOULDN’T be horrified of this?!

The first film I saw as a young girl with an elder in a terrifying role was that of Julian Beck’s portrayal of the malevolent Henry Kane in Poltergiest II. That being said, I’m fairly certain I wasn’t the only one his performance affected in a unfavorable manner. To this very day I get very anxious when an elder comes knocking on my door mostly thanks to his frightening exchange with Craig T. Nielson in front of the Freeling home. Knowing later in my older years, Beck was suffering from pancreatic cancer and basically dying at the time of filming haunts me in waves of periodic guilt trips for being so petrified of the man; who literally giving a dying performance and the one most people remember him by. Whether that was his intention, and I’m sure it was to give it his all, I still can’t help but feel horrible that I myself associated his deathly appearance with such fear; and still kind of do. Little Heather O’ Rourke was so afraid of her on-screen antagonist that she cried and ran away from him on set upon first seeing him. I’m not sure if the mall scene in the movie IS the actual first time she saw him as I can’t confirm it at this time, but knowing that it did indeed happen as stated by crew members, makes this scene all the more believable.

That had to have stung.

Four years later came a more prominent display of gerontophobia in film in the form of William Peter Blatty’s TRUE sequel to The Exorcist, The Exorcist III based off Blatty’s PHENOMINAL novel Legion. Most of the story is set in the gloomy atmosphere of a hospital, particularly in the disturbed wards and of those suffering from dementia and catatonics. The demon this time around, James Venamun, ‘The Gemini Killer” has possessed a once-thought deceased Damian Karras and is tormenting both the fallen priest and old friend Kinderman (George C. Scott) as a revenge tactic on behalf of “friends” for the McNeill incident 15 years prior. If that couldn’t get any more fucked up, the Gemini hops from body to body in the wards possessing the older dementia victims and feeble-minded to carry out murderous acts; hammering home how vulnerable and horrifying it can be to age. Because now we have to worry about getting possessed by demons to boot.

Fantastic.

A more recent film by Adam Robitel, The Taking of Deborah Logan works on the same concept as The Exorcist III except the entire film is focused on this matter and not just an excerpt. Miss Deborah Logan (Jill Larson) is slowly slipping away with Alzheimer’s but something is obviously more sinister afoot with an actual possession going on here. This one really leans into the fears of mortality within us all and what happens when we have reached that bridge in our life span. The pain and the suffering can be tremendous and not only affects us as individuals, but our loved ones as well. The reality of the matter at hand is, if we so happen to live beyond our 70’s and 80’s, it is most likely to come with some painful challenges such as a degenerative disease as terrifying as that of Alzheimer’s- which mind you is displayed pretty accurately in this movie. If one has never suffered from good ol’ gerontophobia prior to seeing this one, chances are you’ll at least be thinking about it soon after.

There are many other film I could list here, some notable ones like The Visit or Ghost Story, but I think you guys are smart and get the point here. Old age in itself can be a source of true horror and is obviously an effective tactic as plot point in the genre. However, it can also be very damning unfortunately and further put a damper on our views of aging. The human experience is one hell of a ride isn’t it? Let’s just hope we don’t piss off any demonic entities’ along the way as we grow into our twilight years.