Dark Tower/1989/91 minutes

 

In this haunted skyscraper movie, a series of bizarre deaths occur at an under-construction high rise building belonging to a company called Unico. The first victim is a window washer who is propelled to his death by a mysterious force from the 29th floor, and in the process a Unico executive is also killed. Private investigator Dennis Randall (Michael Moriarty) is brought in to investigate the freak ‘accident’, and becomes aware of the presence of by a vengeful spectre, who resembles the building architect Carolyn Page’s deceased husband Philip (whose picture Randall observes in Carolyn’s office during her questioning). The local police of course do not subscribe to the supernatural, and dismiss the death as either due to strong wind (it’s the hurricane season in the movie) or due to strokes/convulsions experienced by the worker. However, Carolyn (acted by  British actress Jenny Agutter) has witnessed the death and tells Randall that the poor worker was pushed out of the workbox, though he was quite alone. A series of disturbing visions lead Randall to a parapsychologist and a medium, who tell Randall that he is experiencing premonitions of an impending doom. The visions of Randall relate to Page, where she is seen running around the whitewashed corridors of the building in a disarrayed and dishevelled state. When a security guard is mysteriously killed in the lift and Randall’s friend Charlie goes berserk and tries to kill Page (in the process killing two other people), Randall’s sense of belief in the supernatural and indeed the visions themselves intensify.

 

Page is portrayed as a hard drinking workaholic who seems to be harbouring a secret about her past. It turns out that though Page's husband had designed the building, his plans were turned down, and instead Carolyn got her own designs approved in order to retain the project. A council worker keeping tabs on American citizens informs Randall that Carolyn apparently loved her husband but outsmarted him professionally, which led to a lot of ugly fights between the couple and jealousy by the husband. Randall is also told that Philip supposedly died by falling off a pier into the river, with his body never being found.

 

Meanwhile, the medium and parapsychologist warn Randall that the ghost wants to communicate something through him. At the climax of the film, the three head to the unfinished basement of the building and encounter the spirit who is revealed to be targeting Page at all times for very personal reasons which tie to a secret she has been hiding for two years.

 

Aided by dark cinematography; jarring shots of the haunted building interiors where Carolyn and Randall seem to be lost, dazed and frantic; and accompanied by an effectively ominous synth score, Dark Tower is an atmospheric film even if not entirely logical. The film takes time to build to a suspenseful finish by establishing character’s motives and actions, by presenting repeated shots of the imposing building exterior and bare interiors, and through shots of the lift mechanism as it traps and kills/possesses victims; however, the ending comes in a rush and is sort of abrupt.

 

Dark Tower was a joint co-production between American and British companies that was shot in Barcelona and features stalwarts such as Agutter (who carries the weight of the movie with her grave and mysterious performance), Moriarty and Carol Lynley (playing Page’s secretary). It is surprising to note that the movie is quite obscure, given the steady availability of the movie in videocassettes from its release date till early 1990’s, and given the fact that it features famous stars and is helmed by a well known producer (Sandy Howard). However, cult label Vinegar Syndrome freed the movie from years of obscurity through a Blu-Ray release in January 2021. The film has been restored in 2k resolution from the 35mm interpositive, and the disc features an interview with special effects artist Steve Neill, a short promotional still gallery and a limited slipcover for the first 4000 editions. The print certainly looks pristine and is a huge step-up from the dark VHS releases of the late 1980s and early 1990’s. The reds, greens, facial textures and object compositions are strongly delineated and sharp. The audio is decent and seems to have been restored from the only available source elements.

Neill in his interview recounts how his love for rockets and sci-fi movies like Star Trek, and the impressive work of Planet of the Apes makeup artist John Chambers inspired his career. Neill also recalls that he was invited to show his super 8mm and 16mm movies to George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola and then went for an internship in their office, American Zeotrope. Moving onto Dark Tower and his relationship with the producer Sandy Howard, Neill talks about his earlier collaboration with Howard on Blue Monkey (1987) involving creation of giant mantis creatures, fondly recalls Howard as charming and a smooth talker, and he describes how he got the role of special effects artist on the film. Neill states that he was invited by Howard during the post-production stage to create corpse make up with a tight budget, and he that he used left over mould from another film. Last, Neill admires his finished corpse on the project as a 'cool looking zombie' and recounts how he had to dirty up the corpse and his clothes, as it was buried under concrete and literally 'burst out' years later for revenge.

 

 

                 INCUBUS/1982/Canada/93 minutes

Incubus is a low budget Canadian supernatural horror movie in which a small New England town called Galen is plagued by several rapes and murders of women by an unknown assailant. The rapes are so brutal that the uteruses of the victims are torn apart and in one case the windpipe is also crushed, which is described by the doctor as 'full intercourse'. In other cases where no semen was discovered, the doctor flatly comments that there was ‘dry intercourse’. As the title suggests, the perpetrator is a mythical creature of lore, the Incubus, who is presented in the film as having the ability to transmute into any form, and who rapes witches in order to impregnate them. The central characters of the film are Doctor Sam Cordell, his daughter Jenny, local reporter Laura Kincaid, Sheriff Hank Walden and Jenny’s boyfriend Tim (whose ‘grandmother’ Agatha Galen hides a terrible secret about the town).

 

It is not uncommon for films of the supernatural or mystery genre involving small towns to hold the premise that the townspeople are aware of the events narrated and have been hiding a secret out of fear or guilt. In this movie too, it is shown that the town had a rash of similar bizarre rape-murders 30 years prior to the main events, that were unsolved and suppressed by prominent town residents and the law enforcement officers. Galen reveals that she is a witch-hunter who protected Tim when his mother was driven to her death after being branded a witch, and further it is also shown that she knew of the existence of Incubus and its heavy curse on the town. Instead of believing in the supernatural, the sheriff and attorney general’s deputed officials turn the focus on a gang of people based on the amount of semen found and the unusually violent crime scenes, against the medical opinion of Cordell who still believes the involvement of a single culprit.

 

Cordell is a new resident to town, and as he draws closer to the truth behind the cases, his personal life comes under stress. His young daughter is dating a boy Tim who has premonitory visions of all incidents, and begins to think he is the incarnation of the sexually voracious Incubus responsible for the bloody carnage. Though he is cleared of the murders as his semen is not matched to the one found on a victim's body, his dreams prove crucial in revealing the true identity of the sexual demon. Speaking of the demon, it puts in appearance briefly only twice in the movie, and it looks like an overgrown gargoyle with bad teeth. Kincaid is portrayed as a relentless reporter who may know more about the killings than she reveals, and the actress Kerrie Keane puts in a truly weird and creepy performance as a woman with diabolical intentions.

 

The entire movie has an atmosphere of dread and unease, which slowly builds up to an abrupt and scary finale that was quite startling, if not unpredictable. The one complaint I had with the movie was its editing, which seemed jumbled and gave many scenes a rather rushed appearance. For instance, in the middle of the movie, Jenny is recounting to her father about Tim's delirious state of mind and how he views himself as the Incubus due to his disturbing death visions. However, the conversation is cut-off in the middle and in the next instant, Cordell is seen getting off his car as he rushes towards Jenny and help her and Tim. It seemed to me that either few scene portions were missing from the print source and thus could not be included in the Blu-Ray, or that the film was deliberately edited to reduce verbosity and focus on action, a definite requirement for the horror genre. But in this case, the editing made the scenes feel incomplete and added confusion to the narrative.

However, the movie maintained a grim and mean-spirited outlook throughout its running time with a steady and under-stated emphasis on expressions of torment and nauseating direct dialogue related to the rapes. For instance, in one early scene, Cordell informs the sheriff that such a large amount of semen was found in a victim’s body that the hemorrhaging could not get rid of it ! He also mentions that the substance appeared red under a microscope and moved at a different rate that that of humans. The grim atmospherics of the film are ably supported by stark and gloomy Canadian landscape, the gothic designed houses and a curious cobweb ridden library where Galen reads an ancient text on demons and the Incubus. In summary, this was not an entertaining film to watch, but as a horror story it lived up to expectations by creating images of tension and palpable fear during the resolution of the mystery. An effective torture scene appears towards the beginning of the movie, where a library curator is ravaged amongst shelves of falling books and empty faced mannequins who stare eerily while the poor lady is brutalized and left for dead. While there are long interludes where there is either a lot of dialogue or empty hard stares by the characters, the film is not dull because of the suddenness in which cruel deaths and rapes appear on screen and the crude manner in which they are depicted.

The Vinegar Syndrome release comes in a dual Blu-ray and DVD format, with a clear print and strong colours throughout the presentation. Objects, facial textures and small details are also well defined and the film grain is natural and not too heavy. However, the studio gives a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie that they could only locate a theatrical pint for Reel 4, which becomes noticeable with a few scratches and speckles in some scenes. However, these are small faults and do not hinder the viewing experience in any manner. Both dialogues and sound effects are satisfactorily presented. The disc contains a commentary track by Hysteria Continues, interviews with the director John Hughes, lead actress Kerrie Keane and cinematographer Albert J. Dunk, and a bunch of TV spots, alternate takes and trims, plus a theatrical trailer. The director in his interview praises Cassavetes and comments on his improvisational style of delivering dialogues. He also states that the cast had to take three shots for each scene, and further he praises the standard of acting, lighting, cinematography, and technical aspects of the film production. Keane puts in a cheerful appearance in her interview, where she fondly talks about being cast opposite Cassavetes and John Ireland in her debut film and the support she received from the director and cast members during shooting.