If you don't die screaming....you're already dead!
movie tagline
Director: Tim Rasmussen, Jr.
Writers: Tim Rasmussen, Jr, and Merle Johnson
Cast
Alice Heather Amos
Vince/Victim Landyn Banx
Tommy Foster Joshua Devon
Baby Davis Eilin Errin
Klaus Schreck Brendon Etter
Kari Kristy Evans
Skinner Ghoul Mike Evans
Burlaptress -
Laurie Lee Curtis Brittany Fowler
Laurie/Nancy/Augmenta Rachel Grubb
Pete Lore Merle Johnson
Silence Ghoul Melon Kauley
General Skinner Robert E. King
Max Alexander Krivetz
Mary/Marylin Brooke Lemke
Clive Conor Liam
Just in time
for Hallowe’en—if you hurry.
“Tales of the
Dead” is an indie anthology of five horror stories. Each is free-standing as there is no
connecting narrative, although some of the ghoulish characters do show up in
the small vignettes between the stories.
Except for the last tale, they are all supernatural with some aspects of
everyday life to them and some foothold in reality. In other words, it could happen to you.
Let me say
first that I do recommend this film. It
has a lot of heart, humor and imagination and from the opening credits on has
an original look. You can tell that the
filmmakers cared about what they were doing and for the most part do a good
job.
“Burlap” is
the first story. It is about a very
ordinary woman working late in a lonely office.
We see her stalked by an unknown creature which is partly covered in the
title fabric. His face is ghastly and
gruesome in a very satisfying way. He
stalks her on her way home and….let’s just say it doesn’t end well for
her. The plainness of the woman, the
security camera look of the film, and the commonplace situation add up to a
very chilling story. Any of us could be
working late some night and, who knows what could happen?
The second
tale is “Reckoning of the Werewolf” and for the first ten minutes or so I
thought it might be my favorite. The
three young women and their plight of being stuck on a deserted road at night
is something any of us can relate to.
Unfortunately the spell was completely ruined for me by the appearance
of the werewolf. I reckon they had a
very small budget and couldn’t afford fancy shmancy make-up or costumes.
The following
is a Public Service Announcement aimed at filmmakers:
Please, please,
please go back and watch “Cat People” (the original version). Take a page from the Val Lewton/Jacques
Tourneur playbook. Less really is
more. If you can’t afford a good
werewolf costume, that’s ok – there’s no shame in that. Make up for it with more of what you were
doing – fog, strange noises, a vague shadow moving in the dark. If you have to show something, make it just
a quick shot of fangs. Trust your
audience, we can figure out the rest. For
the love of heaven don’t let the camera linger on a werewolf who looks like a
fugitive from a Muppets on Ice! production of Red Riding Hood. When he takes off after his prey, he looks like
Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail.
Please, don’t let your viewers down.
Thank you!
The same
problem plagues the next story, “The Radio”.
I was involved with the characters – the extremely creepy but amusing shop
owner who sells the radio and the very annoying guy who doesn’t know how to
follow directions. “Don’t play the radio
after midnight”. So, he plays the radio
after midnight. Demons arrive to drag
the hapless schmuck down to hell which seems a little harsh just for leaving
the radio on.
However, it
was ok until I got a look at the “demons”.
They look just like little kids in Halloween costumes. With a little ingenuity you probably could go
in a pretty monstrous direction with that.
But, they just look like kids in masks.
Once again, no dishonor in having a small budget. But if you have to use cheap make-up, KEEP
THE LIGHTS DOWN. Again, let your
audience exercise their imagination muscles for some of it. Trust us; we can imagine pretty horrifying
stuff.
In “Walpurgisnacht”
a demon rises from the graveyard and terrorizes a suburban neighborhood. As I
said, it could happen to you. The
lessons learned here were:
- Even if you are a demon, you really should look both
ways before crossing the road, and…
- if you happen
to hit a demon with your car, don’t make it a hit and run.
“Mistress of
the Tower” is in some ways the best looking and well made of the bunch. It is a longer story—a little bit too long
for me—and is presented as a silent film.
There is a very evocative orchestral score and intertitles which convey
the dialogue as well as the narrative.
This is a fairy tale story of Darkael, the Lord of Darkness and the
woman he creates to keep him company, Evel.
Things go awry when Evel decides to go out and explore the world. It just goes to show—even undead, hellish
Rulers of the Night have relationship problems.
The actors do
very creditable work. Some of the
scenes, especially the outdoor scenes are shot beautifully. When the special effects, costumes and
make-up are kept simple they work remarkably well. When they don’t work, as in the examples I
gave above… hoo boy! The spooky spell
which has been cast evaporates like Max Schreck’s Nosferatu in the morning
light. It is very close to a rating of
four kisses, but the flaws are too distracting for me.
NOTE: there is another film by the same name. Don’t get them mixed up.
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