Thursday 29 June 2017

Review Roundup -3 - The Unseen, Boogens, Humanoids of the Deep and Monsignor Quixoteally

 Monsignor Quixote (1987)-   a waste of of talents, prototype ITV comedy drama premiere - Alec Guinness as David Jason. Euston does Graham Greene does Don Quixote, with all the visual flair of a substandard BA ad. Like El Dorado if made by Euston.

Watching 1980's Humanoids from the Deep. It's okay. But it's too routine, there's none of the quirkiness of a John Sayles script, and the monsters are good, but there's none of the florid colour of your typical Doug McClure fantasy film. i.e. what this film needs is Ron Pember and Keith Barron. It needs a Joe Dante. It is like the Boogens (1981), another well-shot, well-designed horror - with cool monsters but little else.
EDIT: Watched it, and there's some fun bits, the old people's orchestra and the whole fairground bit, and the ventriloquist's dummy being used as a witness to a sex and murder scene. And there's an impressive explosion. And the fat kid on the boat.  The setpieces are all well done, but if it had the character and appeal of a Piranha, and perhaps a less sleazy tone, it might have been a classic. Ann Turkel is a plank of wood. And McClure doesn't look interested.

The Unseen (1981) - Barbara Bach (before she became Barbara Bachhkkkeeeee (said in Scouse accent)) meets baby-monster. 80s slasher, sort of like a more evil, more straightforward The Baby (1973) if done as an episode of Brian Clemens' Thriller, with annoying eccentrics a la the Avengers, and a nice Michael J. Lewis score, which belongs to a better film. It features the Danish colony of Solvang, which is an interesting location, and sadly not enough is made of it. But it does have a bizarre chicken-used-as-a-torture weapon scene.