Dan-359 Reviews

Cast a Deadly Spell (1991 TV Movie)

enjoyable comedy-horror

[26 September 1999]

Almost a forerunner to Paul Schrader's Witch Hunt, involving some of the characters and settings, Campbell's film - while certainly less polished - ultimately has more charm. There is none of the political edge which Schrader shoe-horned into the later film, with Campbell content to make vague suggestions about codes of honour and conduct. Where Schrader used the milieu to comment on real life Campbell instead delivers pure fantasy, an approach which works better.

The film has a perfunctory plot involving some McGuffin and a save-the-world climax but it is the incidental details which provide the most amusement. The trip to the real-estate development provides some moments of zombie mirth, while Fred Ward's battle with a rubbery-looking gargoyle is great fun. However, there are also some unpleasant scenes: deaths at the railway station and the diner being among them. Overall though, the tone is comic as opposed to horrific, something that is helped by a terrific central performance from Ward and engaging turns from David Warner and Julianne Moore.

Big Zapper (1973)

A nadir for the GB film industry

[26 September 1999]

This has to mark a low point for the British film industry; it is cheap, slapdash, sleazy, painfully unfunny but, most unforgivably, totally dull. Most of the actors look embarrassed to be involved with the exception of Gary Hope, as Kono, who throws himself into the part with such vigour that he reaches a crescendo in the first scene and has nowhere to go from there. The tone lurches unevenly from one scene to the next: the film opens with the brutal murder of a young girl (naked, of course)after which we are treated to Zapper getting dressed, explaining in a monotonous Marlowe-style voiceover how her boyfriend, Rock Hard, keeps pestering her for a whipping session. From here on the violence is fairly comical, at least I assume the kung-fu scenes are supposed to be funny.

Naturally all this "action" is bogged down by shots of Zapper driving around London, so Shonteff tosses in gratuitous nudity every so often to perk up the interest. When we eventually reach the climax, so to speak, the ending is so abrupt as to be almost non-existent, thus denying those who have had the fortitude to sit through the whole thing the bonus of a payoff.

The concept of a female private eye, along with spoofing James Bond and so on, is a reasonable one; but what these films need more than anything else is a strong visual style and this effort is completely lacking in any style, visual or otherwise. The sets are dismal, as are the locations; the costumes are tacky and the theme music repeated throughout. I thought Shonteff's 'Devil Doll' was bad, but I suppose everything is relative.