BEYOND THE DOOR 3 (1989) ** ½

A group of college students take a trip to Yugoslavia to witness a historic passion play that predates Christianity.  Their professor (Bo Svenson, Part 2, Walking Tall) leads them to a cabin in the woods where they are almost burned alive by a crazy old witch.  They hop aboard a passing train hoping to get away.  Pretty soon, they realize the train has a life of its own.

Beyond the Door 3 has nothing to do with the other two movies in the series.  It’s kind of dull in places and doesn’t make sense in others.  Even though it’s not exactly what I’d call “good”, I’m still glad I saw it.  I’m a sucker for ‘80s unrelated sequels, especially ones with such outdated fashions and attitudes.  If it’s not the best film in the series, it’s certainly the most fun.

The gore is plentiful and helps it from being another forgettable movie with the number “3” in the title.  There are plenty of scenes of impalements, burning bodies (some that look like mannequins), decapitations, and people being cut in half.  We also get an excellent face-ripping sequence and the finale is really bonkers too.  

Some fun comes from seeing Svenson talking like Bela Lugosi (although you can spot the days his dialect coach took a day off).  Unfortunately, he disappears for a good chunk of the movie.  You can also derive a few laughs from the obvious train models that are used throughout the film.  All I’ll say is that there were a LOT of toy trains demolished during the making of the film.

AKA:  Amok Train.  AKA:  Evil Train.  AKA:  Death Train.  AKA:  Winds of Evil.  AKA:  Dark Train.

SWAMP GIRL (1971) **

Simone Griffeth stars as Janeen, a young woman raised in the Okefenokee swamp by her “Pa” (Lonnie Bower) who has isolated her from the outside world.  She meets a friendly ranger (Ferlin Husky from Hillbillys in a Haunted House) who takes a shine to her and tries to get her acquainted with society.  A pair of escaped convicts stumble upon their cabin, kill Pa, and take Janeen hostage.  It’s then up to the ranger to save her.

Griffeth was making her debut here and she immediately shows she's ready for bigger and better things.  (She’d go on to memorably star in Death Race 2000 as David Carradine’s navigator.)  Her performance is easily the best thing about the movie. She has plenty of spunk and looks quite fetching.  Husky does a decent job too, although the rest of the cast seems rather amateurish in comparison.

Director Don Davis (who had a bit part in Plan 9 from Outer Space) handles the scenes of various swamp perils like snake bites, quicksand, and gator attacks efficiently enough.  However, it’s slow going for most of the picture.  The subplot about three degenerate fishermen hunting for Janeen particularly bog things down.  The ending is contrived and coincidental too.  Had the movie ended about five minutes sooner, it probably would’ve gotten ** ½.

Despite the pokey pacing, inconsistent acting, and lame ending, I have to say that the scenes between Janeen and her “Pa” are genuinely moving.  Pa is actually a black con who rescued her from white slavery when she was very young.  Since then, he’s raised her as his own and hidden her away in the swamp.  He knows that once society finds out about them, they won't accept them.  (This is the south after all.)  Griffeth really shines in these scenes.  Too bad the rest of the movie is so standard issue.  Still, it's nice they could slip in a racial tolerance lesson in the middle of a junky exploitation item. 

THE LAZURUS EFFECT (2015) **

A group of scientists work together on a serum that can bring the dead back to life.  The experiment is a success when they bring a dog back from the dead.  When a mysterious pharmaceutical company tries to pull the plug on their funding, the scientists make one last ditch effort to duplicate the experiment.  Dr. Olivia Wilde winds up electrocuting herself in the process.  Her grieving husband, Dr. Mark Duplass uses the serum to bring her back.  Pretty soon, he realizes he shouldn’t have messed with mother nature.

We’ve seen this whole “scientists shouldn’t play God routine” hundreds of times by now.  What could’ve been a trite and routine horror movie is made bearable thanks to the great cast.  Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, and Evan Peters make for a terrific team and they have plenty of chemistry together.  Duplass in particular is great.  The scene where he frantically tries to bring Wilde back is a standout.  YOU try telling him not to play God when he’s that crazed.

Unfortunately, even the fine acting can’t save the turgid third act.  It’s here where Wilde turns into an amalgam of Jean Grey and Carrie White, reading peoples thoughts, showing them visions of Hell, and killing them through telekinesis.  Although most of this is rather shitty, at least it features what I believe to be the first cinematic instance of death by E-Cigarette, so for that, it can’t be all that bad.

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX (2018) **

The Cloverfield Paradox was released Super Bowl Sunday on Netflix with little fanfare.  To my knowledge, there had been no trailers or photos of the movie (aside from a few online rumblings to its actual existence) up until then, which was a smart move because it allows the viewer to go into it completely cold.  Streaming it in the home, with zero expectations, it is a passable, albeit forgettable effort.  I’m sure that if viewers had been waiting months in anticipation to see it in the theater, it would’ve been a massive disappointment.

This is the third installment in the Cloverfield franchise.  Plot-wise, they’re only marginally related.  However, The Cloverfield Paradox keeps with the tradition of introducing an intriguing premise and then letting it circle the drain from there.

It certainly had the most promise of the three films.  The set-up is a mix of ‘60s Cold War paranoia, ‘70s energy crisis parable, and ‘80s Alien rip-off.  In the near future, the world is approaching the end of sustainable energy while inching closer to the brink of global war.  A team of multinational scientists go into space seeking a way to sustain energy by performing a particle accelerator test.  The experiment goes wrong and they wind up in a parallel dimension.  The two alternate realities soon begin fighting for supremacy, causing odd paradoxes and bizarre changes among the crew. 

In addition to Alien, there are scenes that might remind you of Event Horizon and Galaxy of Terror, just to name a few.  As the Alien rip-off subgenre goes, you can certainly do a lot worse.  Despite a few bizarre moments (most of which relate to the paradoxes that occur onboard the ship), there really isn’t a whole lot here to recommend.  Viewers hoping for any connective tissue to Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane will likely find this to be a frustrating experience.  I for one think it would’ve been better without the nods to the other films, but what do I know?  I haven’t like a Cloverfield joint yet.

The cast is better than the movie deserves.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw does a fine job as the Ripley of the piece.  She’s particularly good in the scene where she’s confronted with the possibility that her dead children are now alive in this alternate universe.  Daniel Bruhl, David Oyelow, Zhang Ziyi, and Chris O’Dowd (who gets a few funny moments) aren’t given nearly as much to do, but they hold their own, despite the weak script.

One neat touch:  In the future you can use a 3-D printer to make guns AND bagels!  Who knew?

THE FLIGHT THAT DISAPPEARED (1961) **

Passengers in Los Angeles board a plane headed to Washington, D.C.  Halfway through the flight, the plane malfunctions and it begins ascending skyward.  The passengers start passing out left and right, all except a couple of scientists who are on the verge of discovering a new “Beta Bomb”.  The crew passes out too and the scientists are unable to stop the plane as it heads for its mysterious final destination.  

Directed by Reginald (Diary of a Madman) LeBorg, The Flight That Disappeared starts off as a decent enough disaster movie before turning into something akin to a piss poor Twilight Zone episode.  The early scenes of the passengers chatting each other up and getting to know one another are perfectly fine.  LeBorg even manages to provide a modicum of atmosphere, which is commendable given the cramped quarters of the plane.  The shots of the concerned crew in the cockpit are particularly effective (even if you can see the edges of the set).

I won’t reveal what happens to the scientists when they arrive at their fog-shrouded destination.  I will say that what happens there is heavy-handed and predictable.  Had this been a half-hour episode of The Twilight Zone, it would still feel clunky.  As a feature length motion picture, it’s doubly disappointing.  Heck, even after it wraps up its endless moralizing, it continues lethargically on for another reel or so.  

This is one flight worth skipping.

SWAMP COUNTRY (1966) *

Dave (Dave DaLie) is passing through the Okefenokee and stops to spend the night at a motel.  He finds the woman in the room next door strangled to death, and he is predictably wrongfully accused of murder.  Dave quickly takes off into the swamps and is pursued by sheriff Rex Allen.  Along the way, he bumps into a local girl (Carolyn Gilbert) who agrees to help him nab the real killer and clear his name.

There’s a lot of other subplots that gum up the works.  We also have to deal with a running feud between a mother and daughter (who look about the same age) and endless scenes of the sheriff’s love life, as well as some business with an unsavory gangster.  The scenes of DaLie struggling to survive in the swamp should’ve been the main thrust of the story.  I mean he saves a man from a grizzly bear, rescues a little girl from a panther, and almost gets bit by a snake.  This stuff should’ve taken center stage.  However, director Robert Patrick seems to rush through this stuff.  It’s almost as if he couldn’t wait to get back to the various love triangles and family squabbling.  All this shit really does is bring the movie down.  Heck, the long stretches of people slowly slogging through the swamp are preferable to much of the human drama in the film.

For a low budget, homegrown hicksploitation picture, Swamp Country has a pretty good cast.  In addition to Allen, we also have Lyle (Wonder Woman) Waggoner making his film debut as the deputy.  The best performance though is by Baker Knight (the songwriter responsible for “Lonesome Town”) in his only acting role, who sings a couple of songs in a Johnny Cash-type drawl.  His songs are pretty much the best thing about the movie, which is odd when you consider they’re only there to pad out the running time.

VIGILANTE FORCE (1976) **

George (Miami Blues) Armitage wrote and directed this muddled tale of a small southern California town overrun with crime.  With their police force depleted, they turn to a former war hero named Aaron (Kris Kristofferson) and his buddies to patrol the streets.  They clean up the place in no time at all, but they soon prove to be even worse than the criminals they ran out of town.  It then falls on Aaron’s brother (Jan-Michael Vincent) to set things right.

Vigilante Force plays almost like a remake of Bucktown.  Unlike that film, it’s awfully slow-moving and has very little drive.  It’s ninety minutes, but it feels much longer than that.  Folks expecting nothing more than standard issue Drive-In fare will probably enjoy it.  As a fan of Armitage’s work, I’m sad to report that Vigilante Force lacks the flare Armitage usually brings to his movies.  

A lot of that has to do with the clunky plot.  The big twist seems more random than anything.  When Kristofferson makes the switch from Good Ol’ Boy to villain it feels like he only does so because the plot needs him to; not necessarily because his character wants to.  Also, Kristofferson seems too nice to be a villain.  He would go on to play good villains later in his career, but he just seems too affable to be menacing here.  When he kills someone in cold blood, it just feels off.  

Jan-Michael Vincent is a bit bland for a leading man and can’t command the screen.  Since he’s unable to wrangle the movie away from Kristofferson, we’re really left with no one to root for.  At least the supporting cast is a veritable who’s who of exploitation stars and ‘70s personalities.  Victoria Principal, Bernadette Peters, Paul Gleason, and Andrew Stevens have some fine moments, and there are bits by Charles Cyphers, Dick Miller, and Loni Anderson too.

The bulk of Vigilante Force is lazily plotted and lackadaisically paced, but the last reel is really something.  The final showdown between the two brothers features lots of shit blowing up and plenty of guys falling out of high-story windows.  If only the rest of the movie had the same amount of energy.