Cameron’s Closet – 1989, UK/US, 88m. Director: Armand Mastroianni
Night of the Zombies – 1981, US, 86m. Director: Joel M. Reed
Stagefright – 1987, Italy, 90m. Director: Michael Soavi
CAMERON’S CLOSET (1989) Young Cameron (Scott Curtis) accidentally summons a demon thanks to the kid’s overzealous father (Tab Hunter), who was abusing Cameron’s telekinetic powers for personal gain. Hunter is subsequently dispatched, forcing Cameron to move in with his negligible mother. The demon eventually takes up residence in Cameron’s new digs (the closet, specifically) and waylays anybody who’s a threat to it or the boy—including the mom’s scumbag boyfriend, whose head the demon wastes no time in burning the eyes out of. A detective (Cotter Smith) must venture into dream territory in order to stop the evil from consuming Cameron in a climax reminiscent of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, which is just one of many franchises this film borrows from. The special FX are mostly impressive, but the monster, once revealed, is underwhelming. Cameron’s Closet was produced by Smart Egg Pictures, the same production company that financed the majority of the Elm Streets, which hints at the lack of originality found in the screenplay. C
NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES (1981) World War II German soldiers transformed into zombies by chemical warfare attack any persons who enter their territory in the Bavarian Alps. When the CIA sends their best man (Jamie Gillis) to search for a couple of missing scientists, the zombies crawl out of the woodwork. The only good thing I can say about Night of the Zombies is that it’s slightly better than the similar Oasis of the Zombies (1982), which is like saying a UTI is better than an STD. Porn star Gillis performs like a low-rent James Bond but comes off more like Mark Wahlberg’s Brock Landers from Boogie Nights (1997) without the punchline. The movie is sometimes credited as Night of the Zombies II to appear to be a sequel to the more entertaining European production Hell of the Living Dead (1980), which was originally released in the US as Night of the Zombies. Watch that one, skip this. F
STAGEFRIGHT (1987) (AKA: Aquarius) The cast and crew of a second-rate off-Broadway-like musical about a skid row slasher are murdered in real life by an actual killer who’s infiltrated the production. The maniac (Clain Parker), a former actor driven insane by the craft, takes his profession one step too far by going method and turning into Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, and every other famous madman who’s come before him by donning a stage mask and turning the usual psycho-killer tricks. Parker kills one of the actors and takes over their role during a scene rehearsal where he stabs an actress on stage. The production manager has his torso skewered with a power drill while blocking a door. The show’s director (David Brandon) mistakes one of the actors for the killer and hacks him up with an axe; Brandon later gets his arm and head removed with a chainsaw. Stagefright exhibits enthusiasm for the subgenre by offering plenty of splatter and at a fast pace—most of the cast is killed off by the second act—but its characters come off more as caricatures (the flamboyantly gay dancer, the bitchy diva, the cruel theater director, etc.), which eliminates a lot of sympathy from the viewer. One of Dario Argento protégé Michael Soavi’s better films, but like the bulk of the director’s work, Stagefright is more style over substance. Co-writer George Eastman is actual Luigi Montefiori, better known to Italian horror movie lovers as cannibalistic psychopath Klaus Wortmann from the gore classic Anthropophagus (1980). C+