The Chosen [aka Rain of Fire, aka Holocaust 2000 (1977)] - Soundtrack

Seeing The Chosen on the big screen in 1977 or '78 was one the many memorable experiences I had at the Southshore Cinema in Alameda. The rudiments of the plot were easy enough for my ten-year-old brain to follow, a well-meaning industrialist (Kirk Douglas) becomes plagued by prophetic visions warning that the nuclear power plant he is building will become the biblical beast the book of revelation describes as empowering the Anti-Christ.

This is the literal embodiment of...

If that were not horrifying enough, Douglas learns that his character's beloved son Angel (Simon Ward) is the Anti-Christ itself.

THIS!!!

As far as cash grab knock-offs go, The Chosen is a decent enough one of The Omen. It has a smattering of gruesome, heavy-handed 'accidents' dispatching anyone and everyone that dares even consider getting in the way of the plant's construction. It also beats The Final Conflict (1981) to the mass infanticide punch, with a really twisted sequence set in a maternity ward.

Fabio Babini's liner notes for this expanded release, which are in both Italian and English, lavish praise upon Ennio Morricone's atmospheric, albeit a tad repetitious, score.

Babini describes the "key warning signs of the tonal Morricone: the serial rhythm and pressing of the piano pedal, the minor-key orchestral introductions, yearning to touch the soul but keeping a safe distance from any temptation toward cloying sentimentality, the harmonious crescendo almost it leading [sic] to a clash of sound masses, sometimes supported at a distance by a kicking bass." Damn, that is one hyper-descriptive mouthful of lavish praise there.

Mention is also made of Morricone "retaining the traits absolutely recognizable at first listen." Something to which, as undereducated as I am in the parlance of compositional technique and style, I heartily concur. There are rhythmic flourishes that I can hear echoed in Morricone's scores for The Untouchables (1987) and Phantom of the Opera (1999), as well minor-key orchestral passages that likewise echo sections of Morricone's scores for Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Orca (1977), and The Island (1980).

I am not saying these echoes feel or sound as if Morricone were reusing or recycling material, an approach that James Horner admitted to, only that I can recognize his compositional style. Morricone's is scores have become as easy for me to identify as those written by either John Williams or Jerry Goldsmith. 

Young Frankenstein (1974) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - December 19, 1974

1974 saw an amazing one-two punch from Mel Brooks. The first half of the year saw the release of his Western Genre parody Blazing Saddles, while the end of that very same year had his Universal Monster parody Young Frankenstein getting placed under the Christmas tree.

While Young Frankenstein drew inspiration from the first three Universal Frankenstein movies, Son of Frankenstein was the one it 'borrowed from' the most.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #52

Seductress

Magic and savagery are only two of Purgatori's weapons. With a glance, a sway, or a thrust, she can incite the lust of any man or woman, bending them to her will - only after she satisfies her own carnal desires. 

King Kong Lives (1986) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - December 18, 1986

General audiences were not all that happy with this campy, goofy, and nutty sequel to 1976's only slightly less campy, much less goofy, and nowhere near as nutty King Kong. This thing left a smoking crater at the box office during the 1986 holiday movie season and, most likely, drove the final nail into the coffin of the short-lived DEG production company.

I was working at the Empire Cinema in San Francisco at the time, which is one of the theaters it opened to to empty seats at on the west side of the Bay Area, so I got to see it on the big screen.

Truth be told, I do not think the movie is that bad. If it had been made 20 years earlier, and in Japan, I think it might be a tad more beloved in giant monster movie circles. Maybe. But in the United States in 1986, King Kong Lives was woefully out of touch and out of place for what for audiences wanted and expected from a movie of this kind. So it goes.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #16

Predator (1987)

"You're one ugly motherfucker..." was just the quip an audience needed to hear after 90 or so minutes of nail-biting tension and gruesome violence. My friend and I almost doubled over with laughter and we knew the mano-a-mano fist fight that was about to occur would be a cathartic blast to watch, and it was...

Simple and not the slightest bit overthought, the first Predator remains the best for me. But I have yet to see either Prey or Predator Badlands.

The Fireman's Daughter by Phyllis Eisenstein - Review

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - December 17, 1978

I doubt there was any film that better encapsulated the emotional and intellectual dissonance that occurred as the last vestiges of the counter culture began settling into the banality of middle-aged existence, as the sexual revolution fizzled and cooled, than Philip Kaufman's stellar reimagining of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead is, arguably, a respectable second. Times and people were changing and, well, what we thought we knew, or what we had taken from granted, turned out to have had all the permanence of a wisp of smoke caught up in a strong breeze.

This is my preferred version of the story. Even though it deviates from Jack Finney's source novel about as much as Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining deviated from King's novel, I think those deviations are rooted in an unflinching honesty that both cuts and chills to one's very bones. This move is a classic of its kind.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #51

Wicked Magic

Possessing her own powers and magic, Purgatori wields control over many creatures, including the blood of her victims. Fighting her involves battle on two planes - martial and magical. 

Ghost Story (1981) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - December 16, 1981

Universal Studios released a ghost story for Christmas in 1981. Based on the acclaimed best-seller of the same name by Peter Straub, the film deviates just a tad from the novel's sprawling narrative, but still manages to capture some of its source material's wintery chills. Even if it did choose to downgrade the almost cosmic horror level threat to a woman's spirit seeking revenge upon the elderly men responsible for her tragic death many, many years in the past.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #15

A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

As it approaches, or hits, its 40th anniversary, I still feel a tinge of regret at giving a theatrical viewing of A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge a pass. So it goes.