DEMONOID: MESSENGER OF DEATH

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Original Title: Demonoid: Messenger of Death
Year: 1981
Director: Alfredo Zacarias
Writer: David Lee Fein (writer), F. Amos Powell (writer), Alfredo Zacarias (screenplay, story)
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082257/
Genre: Horror

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synopsis:
A British woman visits her husband at the Mexican mine he is attempting to reopen and discovers that the workers refuse to enter the mine fearing an ancient curse. The couple enter the mine to prove there is no danger and inadvertently release a demon which possess people's left hands and forces them to behave in a suitably diabolical manner. The only way for a possessed person to free themselves from this torment is to cut off their left hand after which it scurries away in search of its next victim.

blerg....

Hot damn I love this poster though!!!

I've cheated once again... but to my credit this time I really thought this film would be a better Mexploitation example than it actually was. I think my poodle sitting here beside me now has more of a Mexican flavor than this film! From Stuart Whitman making yet another goddamn appearance in my reviews this month, to British Samantha Eggar, and a large part of it actually taking place in Las Angeles I believe, Demonoid certainly felt far more a US production as opposed to a Mexican one.

That said, when it comes to cheap ass horror that is good for a chuckle before anything else, look no further than this one!

Hey, I found something in common with a lot of the cinema I've been reviewing this month!

In fact, Demoid: Messenger of Death was a joint USA/Mexico production, hence the lack of any Mexican lead roles most likely. The film revolves around Eggar's character Jennifer Baines, who has come to Mexico with her husband Mark (Roy Jenson) to help reopen a silver mine. As with many other things about the film, Eggar's performance is neither remarkable or offensive, it's just kinda there. I suppose in a low-budget horror film that speaks for something, but really this month I'm hoping for more in either positive or negative direction.

I can't believe how many films I ended up watching that had Stuart Whitman in them. He is far less gravely and "old school" here as Father Cunningham, which normally would be fine, but a straight laced priest is not what I was hoping for! I want the attitude and melodrama, come on!

All is not lost, as there are some very funny deliveries by other actors in the film, most likely unintentionally. Take for instance the cop speaking before he is getting a plastic surgeon to remove his cursed hand...

"In the name of evil, you and I must obey."

Haha what the fuck does that even mean?

I suppose these humorous deliveries and lines can be attributed more to the writing and direction of Zacarias. This story is one that most definitely sounded good in theory. Characters having a possessed left hand sounded massively entertaining. I love the scene in Evil Dead II when Ash's hand becomes possessed and he has a battle with it. The hand hijinx in Demonoid are similar, but just on a much smaller scale. The special effects are definitely lacking, and while it was fun seeing how each possessed person would ultimately attempt to remove their hand, they all lacked that oomph we are really hoping for, with the exception being the final removal in the film. That one is pretty sweet!

The presentation and shooting of the film is never anything special outside of a few OK dark scenes. As I said with the performances, everything is just kind of middle of the road. Unfortunately this film has never been released on DVD, so this was simply a hazy VHS copy which really doesn't help the cause one bit. Most likely due to the budget constraints and a desire to hide flaws, the scenes with dismembered hand are cut way too quickly. The wiggly rubber hand you do get to see is pretty cool, but probably for the wrong reasons. Some other effects such as the flash of a Devil statue upon possession, or the transformation of the hand initially from dust to a more solid form are just done very clunkily.

Demonoid: Messenger of Death started off strong with a flashback scene containing huge boobs and gore and screaming, hooray!, but ultimately fizzled out by the end for me. The story doesn't make much sense, the characters are not compelling at all, the special effects are often too hidden to give any sort of entertainment value, good or bad, and nothing really stood out besides what could have been.

Moderate recommendedation I suppose if you can find it, but I wouldn't try too hard.

Score: 4.25 / 10

THE TREASURE OF THE AMAZON

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Original Title: El tesoro del Amazonas
Year: 1985
Director: René Cardona Jr.
Writer: René Cardona Jr., Jacques Wilson
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090200/
Genre: Adventure

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synopsis:
An action adventure about a group of fortune hunters who search for gold and jewels in the jungles of South America.

This is the Cardona film I have been waiting for! I've sludged through a few days to finally get to a fun yet exploitative film that will leave me with a good taste in my mouth as I move on to the greener pastures of Mexican horror to close out my theme month.

Take Indiana Jones and throw in a surly drunk, profanity, tits, blood and gore, and you have The Treasure of the Amazon. It's not a great film, and suffers a little from Cardona's talkative down times, but this one is worth the time most definitely.

Stuart Whitman plays the aforementioned surly drunk, Gringo, a man who has spent years in the jungle looking for treasures that may or may not even exist. He's chubby and fuzzy and just funny with his typical over-the-top delivery. He seems like he would be a grouch in real life as well.

Here is is pictured with a lovely boom mic.

His partners in crime are Paco and Zapato, played by Emilio Fernández and Pedro Armendáriz Jr., are kind of forgettable characters I thought. They don't stand out as particularly bad, so that's good, yeah? You may remember Pedro Armendáriz Jr. as the abandoned husband from Guns & Guts that I previously reviewed.

Another character of note here is the "leading lady" Barbara (Ann Sydney) who is British, but does a hideous southern accent throughout the film. She is really there only to serve as the standard exploitation lady. You know, eye candy/individual needing protection/target of rapist/etc. Cardona does his damnedest to cram in every female genre stereotype all in one petite package!

Donald Pleasance also makes an appearance here as an old Nazi named Klaus von Blantz who is also on the hunt for treasure. I'm not sure of the point of this character except to try to cash into the Indiana Jones bank that was huge at the time, and to provide more excuses for Cardona to show natives getting killed and Klaus' hot native and TOPLESS assistant. Hooray boobies! His story ties in somewhat to Gringo and his group, but they wander apart and Klaus becomes rather pointless outside of shocking moments by the end of the film.

Yep, I'm showing boobs over Nazi face.

While overly long still (almost 2 hours), I thought Cardona brought a much more entertaining story here than in the previous films I have reviewed. Particularly with Stuart Whitman, I even had fun with the down scenes loaded with dialogue. As soon as you felt like it may be getting a bit boring, we'd get one of the awesome FAST ZOOM into someone's face to note surprise or something to that effect. Even little touches like this had me laughing in the film.

The previous films I reviewed could be absolutely brutal in their pacing while you waited for that exploitative moment. Cardona did a much better job here in not saving that one big bang for the end and having us suffer for the rest... it's all spaced out well.

Honestly it probably could have been cut by 30 minutes, but it's possible then we may have not been treated to all the fun beheadings, gunshots, native attacks out of nowhere, and a fucking CRAB ATTACK. I swear it looked better than the spider attack in Fulci's The Beyond! (but that's not really saying much, is it?)

Classic!

The story is straightforward (I feel like I have said that a dozen times this month on these reviews), if a bit amateur in its structure. You will see most of it coming a mile away. But I was able to forgive the shortcomings since it was a good time. I didn't find myself really nit-picking. It is what it is. Finally all the little parts made the whole better! That's all I really ask of these films.

This film was a lot of fun for me. Maybe it was because I had gone through some rough films in Cardona's huge catalog of work, but this one lightened the mood and helped me feel a bit better. It's got a nasty side, but much of The Treasure of the Amazon is tongue in cheek exploitation that comes from a better place I think.

And fucking Stiglitz shows up again. I swear, would that guy say no to anything? Hilarious!

Good job, boat captain!

It's totally cashing in on the Indiana Jones and early-80s jungle movie fad (Romancing the Stone!), it's probably overly bloody and breast-filled, but it I liked it for what it was.

Recommended for those looking to lighten up their Mexploitation education.

Score: 6.25 / 10

GUYANA: CRIME OF THE CENTURY

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Original Title: Guyana, el crimen del siglo
Year: 1979
Director: René Cardona Jr.
Writer: René Cardona Jr., Carlos Valdemar
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080833/
Genre: Horror?, Exploitation

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synopsis:
An horrific dramatization of the Guyana tragedy, this story traces the steps of Rev. Jim Johnson, who, after years of evangelism and good deeds, starts his own church in the United States, becomes increasingly obsessed and paranoid, and emigrates with his congregation to Guyana where he plans to create a utopia. When the United States government probes deeper and deeper into the true nature of this utopia, Rev. Johnson leads his followers where no one may have expected.

For those of you who do not know, this film is the dramatization of the events leading up to and the 1978 mass suicide by the followers of Reverend Jim Johnson. It was released less than one year after the suicide of more than 900 people by their drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.

Let me put that out there again.

This film was released less than one year after the suicide of more than 900 people by their drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.

That combined with the fact that the film really offers zero insight, and only gives the audience a glimpse at the purported events, tortures, rants, and suicides, really makes this film come off as very sleazy. But in a way it felt to me like Cardona's most mature work. (At least as far as I have seen and read about.) Maybe this is irresponsible of me to say.

The cheap shocks are there per Cardona's usual, but this time the shocks really happened in a sense. It was a shocking event, and in Cardona's defense, he creates a very creepy and brutal story with a climax that will make your skin crawl. Don't get me wrong, the fact that this film exists is offensive I would say. Cardona's immaturity was probably in making the film in the first place.

Most of the film is just James Johnson, played by Stuart Whitman in a role that really was not half bad, if a bit gruff, ranting to either his subordinates or his followers. The screenplay is very simplistic and lacks almost all artistic merit. A film like this is one step away from a police-reality show dramatization or a mondo film.

Again as I have said numerous times about Cardona's work, this one too feels like you are suffering through blah-blah-blah while you are waiting for the next shocker. The difference here was that the shockers had me kind of wincing this time. Call me jaded, but the "shocking" scenes of people being drug under the water by sharks in Cyclone, or loads of tits and bloody shootings in Guns and Guts were just scenes that I expected to see. They were there, and if they weren't I probably would have liked the films even less.

But the scenes in Guyana felt a little more brutal... struck home kind of successfully. Is it because they may have been based in reality? I don't know, but watching people force fed poison, even poisoning babies, was pretty horrific for me as far as watching a film goes.

This film is like a cheap prostitute. She shows you the goods for better or worse, you pay her, go through the motions, then you go home and cry in the corner. The way the film is presented is like a horror film we all know the conclusion to instead of a responsible film would attempt to offer some explanation into the subject matter, and not just show us the goods and be done with it. Or even a "fun" film in which the violent acts are based in obvious fantasy.

After watching Intrepidos Punks and La Venganza de los Punks, I felt like I needed a shower. But in that shower I was smiling and singing Van Halen - Jump.

After this Guyana: Crime of the Century, I'm stepping under the water with my clothes on.

You could probably do yourself a huge favor if you are interested in the actual events and read a book or see a documentary. Guyana, while definitely not the most graphic, gory, etc., (there is actually very little) is one of the more brazenly exploitative films I've ever seen.

Hey, but at least Stiglitz makes an appearance. Oh wait he looks like an idiot.

I really don't know if I liked it or not. We'll just call it right down the middle. Negative points for being shit screenplay and kind of plodding at times. Bonus points for having the balls and lack of tact to release it in the first place.

Shower time!

Score: 5 / 10