Year Of The Knock Off! Warriors of the Wasteland (1984)

If you aren't going to put the lead actor on the poster, then at least make Fred Williamson front and center for frack's sake. 

After the discussion that Steve and I had about Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and (ugh) Solarbabies, I knew I wanted to get back into the wasteland and watch another film that was trying to chase what George Miller and company had gotten so right. I am sure I had many other options to explore, but I could not resist the siren song of finishing out the unofficial 'warriors' trilogy that Enzo G. Castellari co-wrote and directed: Warriors of the Wasteland (or The New Barbarians as it was called everywhere else in the world). Does Enzo put the pedal down and give us The Road Warrior knock off we all want or does he run out of gas and leave us with a lot of weird slow motion action?

Here is the wikipedia page, and the imdb.com cast listing. 

When we started off on this weird journey of chasing down the also rans, I never expected to watch two films by the same director, let alone three. As I was already somewhat familiar with Enzo Castellari due to his work on the cool western, Keoma (just ignore the score but appreciate what it was trying to do), I knew Steve and I would be excited for 1990: The Bronx Warriors when we decided to pair it up with our talk about Escape from New York. We had a lot of fun with that film and then we learned there was a direct sequel, Escape from the Bronx, and a sorta spiritual sequel, Warriors of the Wasteland. As I had already seen the first two films, I didn't need much of a reason to hunt down the third in the trilogy. I already knew I was going to be in for some dodgy acting, smaller budgets, slow motion action shots, a wobbly synth score, and random explosions...

...and the potential for more glorious .gifs. 

I won't give in until I am victorious... in giving you all the .gifs.

So, let's get this out of the way, Warriors of the Wasteland is not a direct sequel to Escape from the Bronx. The opening title sequence shows a city (with some halfway decent miniature work) being blown up and destroyed due to some unknown and unnamed nuclear power. The city could be New York but it isn't specifically stated. I do want to believe this as that would be an amazing way for Castellari to wash his hands of the character of Trash and the convoluted plot of people who may or may not want to escape Da Bronx. 

We then learn that we are well past the future of 1990:

If you are reading this in 2018: Happy New Year. If you are reading this in 2019, I hope you stockpiled water and found a random object that can be used as a hat. 

At least the nuclear holocaust is over. What appears to be left in its wake is a world in which people want to group up in caravans and believe they are the only people left in the world, only to discover other pockets of people that believe they were the last survivors as well but yet all of these people are only miles apart from each other. However, all of the people remaining know about the Templars, a group of men dressed in white armor who's mission it is to purge the world of all humanity as it is our fault that the nuclear holocaust took place.

The Templars will kill however they need too but they mostly enjoy using modded vehicles with various weapon attachments. They have rocket launchers, spears the jut out of the front, and in one case a spinning blade the swings out at waist level. 

...waist level if you are still standing up that is. 

 There are a few people that oppose the Templars but would rather stay out of their way than to confront them head on. One of them, named Scorpion (Giancarlo Prete, who we last saw in Escape from the Bronx as Strike, the man with a shotgun that was borderline magical), is a loner and has a sweet wasteland vehicle of his own that he travels the world in.

 I know what you are thinking, you have seen that car somewhere before. And you have:

Warriors of the Evergreen Terrace. 

I kid, but wow that bubbletop on Scorpion's car is an odd design choice that gets repeated often with other vehicles in Warriors of the Wasteland. Scorpion's car is the only one that resembles a muscle car and is the closest we get to Mad Max's V8 Interceptor. Take the bubble off that thing and it is a pretty bad ass looking car. It is hard to see in the picture above, but there is a silver skull on the front end. It's a nod to the Riders in 1990: The Bronx Warriors and how their motorcycles would have light up skulls on their front. 

Scorpion's car also has a lot of gadgets and deterrents to help him for if and when he crosses paths with the Templars. Machine guns on the front, a rocket launcher in the back, turbo boosters, and a button that launches the driver side door at the enemy. It has two other important functions: 

1.) 'Power' Doors.

Before you can launch your door, you need the laziest way possible to open it.

And:

2.) Portable Sex Tent.™

Let's make love by the pale bubble light. 

You know that that sex tent is just going to slowly deflate over the course of the night, right? As a veteran of many air mattress fights, I can speak with certainty that you never win, you just hope to not be completely on the floor when the morning comes.

Anyway, Scorpion saves a woman, Alma (Anna Kanakis, who has nothing of worth to do in the film unfortunately and is in the above sex tent), from a Templar attack. Seeing that her shoulder is hurt, they try to go find out if there are any friendly Non-Templars around. 

Meanwhile, the leader of the Templars, a man named One (George Eastman, who we saw in 1990: The Bronx Warriors and Hands of Steel), is pissed that Scorpion is causing them problems... again. Turns out that One and his leadership know that Scorpion used to be a Templar and they want him punished. Mako, the protege of One, decides the best way to show his worth as a Templar and to challenge One for his leadership, is to go hunt down Scorpion and kill him.

While Mako and company corner Scorpion (not before he launches his car door at them), he gets an assist from the world's greatest badass, Nadir, AKA Fred Williamson. 

Hey, Thanos. Fred Williamson wants to have a word with you. You have his gauntlet and he wants it back.

Nadir loves the rush of victory and is the only person in the Wasteland that doesn't use a gun. He prefers to use a compound bow and 'custom' arrowheads. The heads themselves are different colors (they are attached to his forearm armor above), and they looked more like food coloring droppers to me than an array of explosives. 

For when you need to color your frosting or to blow the hell out of a target.

As for how the arrow heads are different from each other, the film really doesn't answer that question. Regardless of color, they explode and cause heads to leave bodies pretty effectively.

What color was that? Red or Blew (up)?

Mako doesn't mako it out of the fight alive and the Templars (well the single one left) is forced to take Scorpion's message back to One; to just leave him alone. Nadir sees that Alma is hurt and tells Scorpion about a caravan nearby that might be able to help her. The three of them head off to find help.

One learns about Mako's plan and subsequent failure and decides that he needs to take a different approach to stopping Scorpion: just kidding, he sends more Templars out to hunt him down since it worked out so well last time. When in doubt, keep repeating yourself until you are out of men and weird cars.

Meanwhile, Scorpion and company find the caravan and learn that they don't want to fight because they believe in something called 'God.' It is supposed to be this big moment of revelation but I had a hard time believing it as I would think that most of the adults left after the nuclear holocaust would have been functioning members of society and would have been well aware of religion. I know, I am questioning the logic of a world that has what looks like unlimited gas and well maintained roadways and the big sticking point for me is that those that left after the bomb dropped is that they forgot about religion and god? Maybe a little more character development about why Scorpion left the Templars would have made this feel better, but then I forgot I was watching the third film in a series that failed to utilize a tap dance fighting theme gang twice, so I have to let this lingering thought go. Besides, Enzo Castellari has something more more horrible to put in front of me to help me forget about this plot development.

Scorpion, knowing that the Templars are probably still looking for him, leaves Alma and Nadir with the caravan, and heads out to... someplace? Who know, it just feels like the wasteland is one 5 mile stretch of dirt and paved roadway that everyone seems to find themselves on (it's almost as if this film was made for almost no budget at all). The Templars soon find him and take him alive back to their camp. One is making a big production or Scorpion's capture, having him yolked up with a pulley system that forces Scorpion to be bent over. One then uses a blade to cut off the back of Scorpion's pants, leaving his bare ass exposed....

I have never hoped to be so wrong in my life. 

This is all going on while the rest of the Templars are in a loose circle around Scorpion and One, staring expectantly. One stands behind Scorpion, flips up his weird leather codpiece and then the film just kinda wigs out for 10-15 seconds. I am not saying that the copy I was watching had an issue with playback, but that the editing and pacing of the scene implied a lot of bad stuff was going on to Scorpion. For a film that had a smidge of nudity in the early parts and a lot of heads exploding through out, I seriously though that Warriors of the Wasteland was about to get really dark (Warriors of the Waist-land?) and have Scorpion be sodomized in front of the Templars. You can tell that's what One wants to do, but the scene is mercifully broken up by a sneak attack from Nadir. This forces the Templars to stop whatever the hell they were planning on doing and go give chase. Scorpion is freed just long enough to tied to the back of a motorcycle and be drug along through the dirt. 

Nadir and his explodey bow saves the day, again.

It's pretty awesome when you know you are blowing a guy's head off and have to do a double take because you are still surprised at what happened.

One, upset that Scorpion escaped yet again from him, decides to attack the caravan that Alma is now with, thinking that Scorpion will be forced to come there to face him. The Templars take all the caravan members hostage and wait.

Scorpion, rattled, lays low for a moment with Nadir and gets his vehicle repaired and upgraded by 'Young Mechanic', no name is actually given for this character. He is a very young kid, like 9-10 years old, that lives by himself in what looks like a food truck that has a bunch of random fans and industrial bric a brac attached to its outside to show that he is way more capable with technology than a 9-10 year old post nuclear holocaust should be. Scorpion's car now has a new weapon (more on that in a minute) and the kid has made blast proof plastic shielding. With Scorpion's car being fixed, Nadir goes about repairing Scorpion's confidence. This takes all of 30 seconds and then they are back on track to go face down One and company.

The three of them (the kid, who is also an expert sniper with a slingshot, tags along) assault the Templars at the caravan camp. Nadir and the kid clean house while Scorpion seeks out One. One starts shooting at Scorpion, only to find that Scorpion has clad himself in plastic blast proof armor (that for some reason, requires that he doesn't wear a shirt under it). Unable to shoot him, One abandons his men and flees the camp. Scorpion faces off against One's second in command.

'Why isn't he wearing a shirt? AHHH MY FACE AND MY SENSE OF BEWILDERMENT!'

Scorpion shortly leaves the camp to chase down One. As Scorpion catches up to One's vehicle, he deploys' his new car weapon: a large extendable drill. He proceeds to drive up to the rear of One's vehicle, drills through the back of it and into One himself. Screwed (ahem), One drives off the road and crashes his vehicle, causing it it to explode. If this was Castellari's not so subtle attempt at commentary on the fact that One had tried to sodomize Scorpion earlier and he is now getting violated from behind by Scorpion, then my hat is off to him. That would show some kind of revisiting of imagery and bring closure to a disturbing portion of the fim. I am 50/50 on whether this was intentional or not. Sometimes a large drill destroying a car and man from behind is just a large drill destroying a car and man from behind.

Scorpion returns to the camp. Nadir, Alma, and the kid are safe, as well as most of the caravan. Scorpion needs to make a choice, to stay or go. The film ends and doesn't really give you a definitive answer and that is actually okay. No need to tack on a super positive ending for a film that wasn't setting up a meaningful character arc for much of anyone at all.

And that's your film.

I think Warriors of the Wasteland is Castellari's most focused film of the Warriors Trilogy. Its plot is so thin that it didn't need to wander off and waste time doing other things that I think it helped make it the most approachable of the three. Probably also helped that there was no budget and that this film was made to focus more on the car stunts and action, so plot would have stepped all over that. 

Also, credit to Castellari and some of his shot set ups. It is unfortunate that the locations they used were all flat and brown (I know its a wasteland, but it really looked drab and uninteresting) because some of the camera movements and they way he chose to tell the story worked quite well. You can see the talent behind the camera at work. I said something similar about his decision making in shot selection for Escape from the Bronx, and it shows that he was a more than competent film maker. I do wonder what he may have been able to do with a better script and an actual budget. 

I can also appreciate what Castellari was trying to do with the slow motion during the action sequences but it never really clicked with me. For a movie that is built upon the promise of kick you in the teeth action like the Road Warrior, slowing down the stunt work just feels counter intuitive. I also think slowing it down really showed the lack of budget. At least it was a conscious decision by Castellari to do something different, it just didn't work for me. Your mileage may vary.

The duo of Giancarlo Prete as Scorpion and Fred Williamson as Nadir worked well. They didn't necessarily like each other, but they saw they were on the same side and eventually grew to trust each other. It is a trope but one that works and their chemistry was good. I really missed Williamson's presence in Escape from the Bronx and I am glad that he was back for this third film. As ridiculous as his outfit looked, I never doubted his ability to explode the world with his bow and arrows.   

 It wouldn't be a rambling blog post without me mentioning the score. I was excited to hear what this film had in store for me as I really, really, enjoyed portions of the scores from 1990: The Bronx Warriors and Escape from the Bronx. What I found was very underwhelming and ultimately, disappointing. Check out the intro theme here:

That drum beat just drives me nuts. It feels off the mark for me. The rest of the score is less inspired than that. I will not be revisiting it again like the other two films. 

Films like Warriors of the Wasteland and the Warriors Trilogy are the reason I wanted to do the Year of the Knock Off to begin with. Is this one a hidden gem? Absolutely not. Was it worth the trip to go through the three films and see some ridiculous action, over the top explosions, find some more fun synth film scores, and to see how Castellari and crew were able to plan these films and shoot them all in six months? Most assuredly. 

The circles I have been traveling within these knock off films has caused my orbit with film itself to get wider and more interesting. If the short term sacrifice is that a little time is spent with a not so great Road Warrior also ran means I get a greater appreciation for how hard it is to make a great film in the long term; I will do it every time. 

On a scale of 1-10, how close did it adhere to the film it wanted to knock off? 

Let's see what it had in common with The Road Warrior:

• Post apocalyptic wasteland
• Weird looking cars (with bubble tops?)
• A lead character that just wants to be alone but can't stop himself from doing the right thing.
• Kids that are smarter than they should be (maybe the boomerang kid in The Road Warrior wasn't the brightest, but he knew to wear a leather strap around his hand while throwing a razor sharp boomerang).
• No shortage of gas or that gas still functions properly.

I will give Warriors of the Wasteland a 6 because it really did try to go for the aesthetic of The Road Warrior but kind of fell on its keys. 

On the Ator Scale, was it better or worse than Ator?

Ator swung harder by trying to make its own mythology that was different than Conan the Barbarian, while Warriors of the Wasteland introduced The Templars and their mission, it really did nothing with it. Ator is just a more fun time than this film. If only Ator had Fred Williamson in it. Every film that does not have Fred Williamson is missing Fred Williamson and is lesser by all accounts. 

Would you recommend this film to anyone else?

If you were curious like me and wanted to see what the third film of the Warriors Trilogy would look like, yes. If you aren't already on board with how weird Italian cinema can be, then maybe not. This would be a nice easy fun watch to have on in the background while people have a few drinks. You don't have to think to hard and you can take a shot every time Nadir takes a shot with his bow and be good and drunk by the end. 

Bonus:

If you want to watch the movie for 'free,' it is on Youtube. Decent enough copy of it too. Remember, the nuclear holocaust is just next year, so don't dilly dally.

Also, looks like RiffTrax has gotten to this gem of film already so if you wanted to watch it with some quality commentary on top of it, there ya go.

Bonus Bonus:

Everytime I think of wasteland car combat, I can't help but think of one of my favorite Playstation One games, Vigilante 8. I really wish they would make a new version (there was an updated version released for the Xbox Arcade a while ago, but it was just an update of the original) because I loved the late 70's setting and the combat was fun. 

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Year Of The Knock Off! Bad Dreams (1988)

This post is a week late and for that I apologize. I know everyone was on the edge of their seat wondering when I would poorly type out half baked thoughts on a film you may or may not have heard of while I post weird .gifs and images from said films. Much like the difficulties I had when I was trying to write about Spacehunter, I had the majority of this post already written when I made the fatal error of attempting to save it as a draft on Blogger. Evidently there is a known issue that drafts don't save correctly with this platform and I am not the first person to lose all of their work. It sucks. I had some amazing jokes and commentary that has been lost to the ages. No, don't go looking for it, it was too good and I set the bar way to high. It's for the best.

The film I chose to watch for the blog for October is one that was chasing the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. But, Paul, why did you decide to look at a Nightmare knockoff and not another Child's Play pretender? Well, Dolly Dearest and its made for TV blandness turned me off to the cursed doll subgenre of horror for a bit. 

So before I accidently lose this post's contents, let's have some Bad Dreams. 

The trailer doesn't shy away from the goop.

Here is the wikipedia page, and the imdb.com listing. 

First, a small warning. Bad Dreams isn't the greatest film, but it does have some surprisingly effective gore in it. If you are bothered by such imagery, then maybe you should steer clear of this discussion as I will be sharing some gnarly .gifs. We good? Good.

Bad Dreams starts off in the mid 1970's at a farm/compound called Unity Fields. It is lead by the charismatic and very creepy Franklin Harris (Richard Lynch, more on him later). He is talking about the 'ultimate joining' of man and woman in unity while he is bringing his followers up one by one to be baptized by a ladle of liquid. He tells them its the final break with the old world and with the dawn, a new day begins, a day of unity. 

He sees hippies. Hippies for miles.

One of the followers, Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin) is somewhat hesitant to take Harris's invitation but slowly does so, being baptized. That evening, the house that the members of Unity is living in explodes into a ball of flame and Cynthia is pulled unconscious from the fire, the only known survivor. The injuries from the explosion put Cynthia into a coma for 13 years.

RIP hippies. The fire probably stank of Patchouli and Grateful Dead album covers.

When Cynthia wakes up, she finds herself in the care of Dr. Berrisford (Harris Yulin). Cynthia can not remember the specific events of the night when Unity Fields burned and Dr. Berrisford believes group therapy can help her recover her lost memories. The group therapy though, is composed of people who are suffering from borderline personality disorder and it is not quite apparent why Cynthia would be placed with people who's biggest challenges are with anger, delusion, and self harm. The leader of the group, Dr. Alex Karmen (Bruce Abbott) doesn't understand why Berrisford placed her there as well but goes along with the placement because Berrisford is his superior. 

Bruce Abbot's name may sound somewhat familiar. He was Dr. Dan Cain in the Re-Animator films. He was the straight man to Jeffery Combs's Dr. Herbert West. Can someone get type cast as a well meaning doctor that has shit go crazytown no matter how hard he tries to not let that happen?  

'My diagnosis? Yes.'

Cynthia seems moderately well adjusted considering her cult past and 13 years gone. She is trying to figure out her next steps in life as she has no friends or family or anything waiting for her outside the hospital. There's only one problem though; she keeps seeing Franklin Harris showing and  up asking her to join him on the other side, to be unified with him and the rest of his followers. One particular creepy moment involves Cynthia in an elevator full of people when he appears.

'Third floor: kitchen wares, comas, and burned up hotdog men.'

No one believes Cynthia that she is seeing him, they do believe that she is processing what happened to her years ago. After doing some 'scream therapy' (where all the group members screamed into pillows), Cynthia's memories of that last night flood back. She recalls that the liquid that Harris was baptizing members with was just straight gasoline. He pours a large tub of it over his head and lights a match, causing the house and the people inside to quickly get covered in flames. Some people react more slowly than others.

This is how I finally was able to get out of my Columbia House cassette club membership. As soon as her memory is filled in, Harris starts appearing more and more, trying to get Cynthia to kill herself and cross over to him. If she refuses to do so, he threatens that he will start taking those that are around her. She doesn't want to believe him but soon people do start to die around her in odd ways. Cynthia has a vision of seeing Harris baptizing her (in a creek, not with gasoline). As she is watching herself being forced underwater by him, Cynthia sees that it is no longer her in his hands, but a girl from her therapy group. When she snaps out of her vision, she hears commotion coming from the nearby hospital swimming pool. The girl from her group and her vision has forcibly drowned herself.  Later on, a group member that was once a reporter for a scandal magazine tries to convince Cynthia that they could both leave the hospital and sell her Unity Fields story and start her life over. The former reporter is getting on an elevator to go and get their belongings when Cynthia sees Harris waiting for her friend. The doors close and Cynthia races down the stairwell in hopes of stopping Harris.  Spoiler: She didn't.

With two very gruesome suicides in less than two days, the press come to ask an obvious question: Is it a coincidence that the girl from the suicide cult wakes up 13 years later and those around her are starting to kill themselves?  Dr. Berrisford dismisses this and simply states to the reporters that people with borderline personality disorder have a predisposition to committing suicide. He believes the therapy he is overseeing that Dr. Alex Karmen is conducting is the correct way to treat these people.

And as soon as he makes this statement, we find that two other group members, a not-so-secret couple, have snuck off after lights out to go have sex in a ventilation room with a large ominus spinning fan behind them. Cynthia, drawn out into the hallway due to some sounds she is hearing from the vents, looks up and see Harris in the vent beckoning her to join him. You would expect that because the couple that were having sexy times by the spinny fan would be the next victims and their blood would come out of the vents above Cynthia. You would be right. How it happens though, is not something I would expect many people to guess.

Worst. Sprinker. Ever.

There's is way more blood there than two horny people could produce. This doesn't even show that just before this happened a janitor gets a Double Dare sized portion of human slop dropped on him (including at least one hand). You have to believe that a hospital has some kind of protocol on how to deal with such a large biohazard. This will take days to address...

...or one guy with a mop in the very next scene. Give that man a raise.

As the numbers of the group dwindle, Crystal believes that Harris is actually killing them off till she finally joins him. Dr. Karmen decides to stay the night with Crystal in her room, to show her that there won't be any more deaths. 

Meanwhile, the last few members of the group have cops posted outside their room doors. Ralph (Dean Cameron), one of the more violent and aggressive group members, is alone in his room with a very large knife. Earlier in the film, Ralph confided in Cynthia that when things get to be too much, he makes a hole in himself to let it all out and he feels better. He shows her his abdomen that is filled with pinhole scars. Ralph with a knife is bad business. What he does with it though...

Turn away while you still can...

You have been warned....

You have only yourself to blame...

JESUS CHRIST.

I don't often swear out loud when watching a film by myself, but that hand jammed onto the knife made me say say stuff that I am not going to type here. Needless to say Ralph is not in a good state of mind after he does this. This sequence eventually leads to Ralph stabbing himself to death with scalpels in front of Cynthia and Dr. Karmen. 

Dr. Berrisford wants to now put Cynthia in isolation and Dr. Karmen disagrees and threatens to get a court order and Berrisford fires Karmen. Somewhere along the way, Karmen has one of the anti-depressants that was given the group members and decides to pop it on the way out the door, you know, as medically licensed professional doctor are oft to do. This leads to him having this vivid hallucination in the parking lot of him killing Berrisford. Dr. Karmen has a hunch and goes down to where the prescriptions are kept for all the patients in the hospital and checks his group members's records. The pharmacist there has a familiar face. Or at least a familiar voice. 

You might better know him as Roger Rabbit.

Dr. Karmen discovers, with the help of the pharmacist, that Berrisford secretly switched the therapy drugs to ones that are hallucinogenic and spike aggressive behavior. Berrisford was purposefully making his potentially suicidal patients tip over the edge and actually kill themselves to prove some theory about behavior he was researching. Franklin Harris wasn't really there. Berrisford was the real monster. 

Karmen confronts Berrisford as he is trying to get Cynthia to choose to jump off the roof of the hospital. Cynthia, drugged out of her mind, believes if she jumps, she will join Harris and the rest of Unity. Karmen saves the day and Berrisford ends up falling off the building. 

The film ends very quickly and then the credits play. With this song.

I was completely confused as to why Sweet Child O' Mine would be at the end of this film. Evidently, Bad Dreams was coming out right before Guns N' Roses blew up and became the biggest rock band in the world. Per the trivia for the film, the video for the song was supposed to be a tie in to Bad Dreams and was to show clips from the film. Axle Rose's girlfriend nixed the idea as she didn't want the song, which was about her, to be related to a film full of mentally unstable people killing themselves. Probably a good call.  

So a couple of comments about some of the cast and people behind Bad Dreams. First, this film was produced by Gale Ann Hurd. She's got a writing and producing credit on The Terminator, producing credit on Aliens (which came out two years prior to Bad Dreams) and is an executive producer on The Walking Dead. She knows how films and productions should work and is responsible for a lot of great stuff. I don't know why this was her very next project after Aliens. She feels too good for something like this. 

Second, this was written by Stephen E. de Souza (with the director Andrew Flemming). He is responsible for writing the scripts for 48 Hrs., Commando, The Running Man, Die Hard, Hudson Hawk, Judge Dredd (the Stallone One), and Street Fighter. He has more misses than hits, but he has memorable films. I don't really have more to add about him other than I was surprised that this was one of his films considering that he is mainly known for action and comedy. 

Third, Richard Lynch, who played Franklin Harris, was really good in this film. He had the right balance of magnetism and creepiness that made him always compelling to watch when he was on the screen. When I learned that in 1967, while under the influence of drugs that he had set himself on fire and burned 70% of his body, I lost my mind. I can't image what that would be like to go through and then one day take a role in which you play a character the purposefully douses themselves in gasoline and then lights themself on fire. I know he didn't actually do this during filming, but there has to be a long hard look in the mirror before you shoot that scene right? God damn, he elevates the quality of the film every time he shows up and knowing that he is playing a man who burned to death in light of the events of his actual life, it just makes his performance stronger.

I can see how Bad Dreams is trying to walk in the shadow of Dream Warriors. You have a burned up boogeyman reaching out from beyond the grave to a group of psychologically and emotionally challenged people who are on the verge of commiting suicide with very little push needed. Hell, the lead, Jennifer Rubin, was in Dream Warriors as Taryn, the punk rock girl with 7 foot tall mohawk. 

She's bad and beautiful. Just not in this film.

Also, the name of the film, Bad Dreams, is supposed to make you think that this film is trying to be Elm Street. There is one big problem with this though: CYNTHIA NEVER DREAMS IN THE FILM. No one dreams and then ends up dead. All the deaths happen while everyone is awake. There isn't even an attempt to do a headnod or eye flutter to imply that someone just accidently fell asleep and now they are in the boiler room Unity Fields. Maybe it is supposed to set you up for the fake out that the real cause of the problem was drugs, not dreams. In that case it works... kind of. 

I think there is an interesting idea in Bad Dreams, I just don't know if it was handled well. The notion that someone who was a part of a cult in which all the members voluntarily let themselves die and they did not,  and how would that affect their world view and their sense of purpose along with their self worth is an very compelling idea. Having their guilt manifest itself as a burned corpse of their leader/father figure adds layers to that. Then mix in that this all could be supernatural or their guilt or the drugs they are being forced to take and you have a film I want to watch. Bad Dreams somehow tries to do this but falls on its keys in a way that is hard to put my finger on. I think its biggest sin is that none of the characters are really relatable (most of the group members are obnoxious) and you don't really ever feel sympathy for any of them. If I don't care about anyone in the film, then I won't care when their blood coats an entire floor of a hospital.

Bad Dreams isn't a bad film, and it is worth watching for Richard Lynch and the gut twistingly great gore effects. I am glad I checked it out even if that hand stab is going to haunt my dreams (the ones I will have actually have, unlike the none that happened in the film) for quite a while.

On a scale of 1-10, how close did it adhere to the film it wanted to knock off?

I am going to go with a 7. It had the following:

• A burned up hotdog man tormenting people from the afterlife (kind of).
• Jennifer Rubin who was in Dream Warriors.
• Charles Fleischer who was in the original Nightmare on Elm Street.
• A death involving falling from a great height.
• A group of psychologically challenged patients being picked off one by one.
• A well meaning doctor trying to help his patients but ultimately can't.
• A rock song playing over the end credits (GNR is pretty good, but they are no Dokken).

If Bad Dreams had ended up being purely supernatural, it would have bumped the score up higher, but there is still a lot these films have in common.

On the Ator Scale, was it better or worse than Ator?

Ator has less hand stabs and a way more awesome end credits song, but Bad Dreams is a better made film. 

Would you recommend this film to anyone else? 

Yes, this is an interesting film to seek out if you have seen all the Elm Street films and are looking for a little different take on the same formula. Just don't eat while watching it. 

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Year Of The Knock Off! Escape From The Bronx (1983)

Are The Riffs gonna make it out this time? Maybe Spike Fist Man will lead the way?

On our most recent Year of The Knock Off episode, we discussed 1982's 1990: The Bronx Warriors, a film that we were lead to believe was a knock off of John Carpenter's Escape From New York. While we did enjoy the film a great deal, the Bronx Warriors had much more DNA from The Warriors in its makeup than Escape From New York. While that was a fun element to look into, because let's be honest, theme gangs are always awesome and always welcome, it didn't scratch that itch that I thought an Escape from New York knock off would. 

Remember, no one will take your turf war seriously if you don't accessorize and practice, practice, practice!

Once we finished watching 1990: The Bronx Warriors, we learned that it had a sequel (technically two sequels but the second one was more of a Mad Max knock off... that I want to watch with Steve, like right now), called Escape From The Bronx. So I decided in lieu of trying to locate a different Escape From New York wannabe, I would watch this sequel in hopes of seeing Trash and the gang escape the Bronx. 

Here is the wikipedia page, and the imdb.com cast listing.

Spoilers: the previous film just kind of ended with Trash (Mark Gregory) driving his sweet skull laden motorcycle away from a gang stronghold that was being attacked and decimated by the private police force of The Manhattan Corporation. In tow, Trash has grapple gun hooked Hammer, an officer who lead the attacks (played by the awesome Vic Morrow). Trash was dragging Hammer through the No Man's Land that is the Bronx. 

Escape From The Bronx picks up some time later. Another company, The General Construction Corporation is now rounding up all the remaining residents of the Bronx. They plan to raze the entirety of the Bronx to make way for a new city of the future (think of the Delta City plan put in place by OCP in Robocop and it is pretty much the same thing, except the model of the city is way lower budget). GCC is stating that they are resettling the residents in New Mexico. 

Enchanting! Sign me up!

The people that have survived in the Bronx don't want to leave. Why this is isn't made particularly clear other than it is their home and they shouldn't be made to leave it. They also do have good reason to believe that GCC is not being on the level about their promise of New Mexico. It doesn't help that the relocation squads that are patrolling the borough are wearing shiny silver suits and are packing flame throwers that they use at the drop of a hat. 

Shown: the Bronx. Not shown: New Mexico probably not looking at all like this.

Enter Trash, one of two returning characters from the original film. His gang, The Riders, were supposedly the rulers of the Bronx in the previous film and were the force to reckoned with. It isn't spoken, but evidently the final fight of the first film took the rest of the gang out and now Trash is just an spindly army of one. GCC knows him by name and have been trying to hunt him down. A helicopter spots him in the distance and opens fire on him. Trash, armed only with a revolver and a face that doesn't emote, returns fire.

Ken would never walk again.

GCC takes this personally and orders that Trash's parents are located and killed. It's a very dick move.

Two things about the brief scene involving Trash's parents:

1.) His mom has a poster of him up in their apartment. Weird.

Does that mean the film of 1990: The Bronx Warriors exists in this world as well? *Mind Blown*

2.) His dad knows how to swing a baseball bat.

Ken would never eat solid food again.

This would lead Trash to head underground to find the remnants of the rest of the gangs that had been fighting for control of the Bronx but now are living in fear of the GCC. 

The leader of the remains goes by the name of Dablone and is played by Antonio Sabato, Snr.  

'One day I will have a son that is bat shit crazy... but also really good looking. Not A List good looking, but definitely good looking enough to make you consider watching some direct to video nonsense, ok?'

Dablone is not as charismatic a leader as Fred Williamson's Ogre was in 1990: The Bronx Warriors, but Sabato plays him with enough crazy energy that it feels like he is the only actor aware of what kind of movie he is actually in, so I appreciated it. Dablone is confident that the GCC wouldn't dare come down in the underground of the Bronx as he and his people know the tunnels and have traps set up. Trash is trying to convince him that they need to take the fight above ground and take their turf back.

While this exchange is going on, there's a certain gang training in the background.

This just made Steve's day.

The Dance Fighters (dance troupe game name 'The Iron Men') are back! Shit is about to get real, right? No. Sadly, they don't ever factor in the fights that happen later. None of the theme gang stuff from the first film really comes back in this one. I did see some members of the rolling skating gang, the Zombies, but they did nothing as well. It's unfortunate, because these two films had a chance to carve out its own distinct brand of weird and failed to do so. 

There is a smaller subplot that is going on during this time involving a reporter, her photographer, and their attempts to get the president of GCC to admit that they are actually killing the remaining people in the Bronx and not at all relocating them to the magical land of New Mexico. The president (played by Ennio Girolami, I only mention his name as he played the president of the other evil company from the first film, so I honestly thought it was the same character... and for all intents and purposes it really is) is quick to dismiss her accusations, stating the he will only respond to respectable press, not a shouting woman. I am glad that this is a sci-fi film and that kind of thing never happens in real life. 

She does present him with a piece of evidence that he thought was hidden from the press: the man running the DAS (Disinfestation Annihilation Squad), the silver suited flame thrower equipped guys, is an expelled prison warden named Floyd Wangler. He is as cruel and as bad as they come. He even has the Disinfestors attach bombs to residents in an attempt to blow others up when they are being rescued.... with varying degrees of success.

'I JUST ATE A BUNCH OF POP ROCKS AND DRANK A 2 LITER OF DIET COKE...'

Who do you get to play such a role? Vic Morrow was a good foil in the first film and had his own intensity. That would be hard to match. Instead, you get Henry Silva. You don't get smolder from Silva. You get a calm demeanor as he goes about doing the worst things to people. Nothing much gets to him. But when he smiles, you are probably already dead. He was great in the roll of Wangler. He didn't really get the chance to mix it up with the main characters and that is a shame. I enjoyed his time on screen and was always hoping there would be more of him. 

'But that's more of grin...!'

The reporter and photographer witness first hand the violence of the DAS, with the photographer not quite making it (he, like a lot of people in this film, got slow motion flame throwered). The reporter ends up in the underground with Trash and Dablone and eventually convinces Dablone to take action.

Their plan? Kidnap the president of GCC and hold him until the company stops all action and hands the Bronx back to the gangs. I don't know if their logic is sound, but I appreciated their enthusiasm. 

They need to get to mainland and the only way they can do that is if they locate an infamous bank robber named Strike (Giancarlo Prete). Strike's motivation for helping Trash and the reporter is that once the Bronx is back in control of the gangs, he can go back to be best there is at crime (?). I figured you could commit crimes and robberies regardless of who is in charge, but what do I know, I am not very good at crime at all. So Strike agrees to help them out, on one condition, that his young son, Junior (Alessandro Prete.. HIS ACTUAL SON) comes along with them as the kid is a demolitions expert. The kid actually does prove time and time again that he knows his stuff about rigging explosives and is probably the most competent character in the whole film. Junior likes to raise his hand into the air, splaying his fingers out, and saying 'boom' before any explosion goes off. It is a very cute and disturbing calling card.

So Trash, Strike, Junior, and the reporter head out to kidnap the GCC president. As the reporter's job is complete, she is quickly killed off. Thanks for filling in the backstory, but we only have so much money for words and we would rather use that on explosions. 

They capture the president and take him underground to get him back to the Bronx. GCC, Wangler, and his Disinfestors are brought out in full force to head into the sewers to find Trash and the gang. 

Please see how unaffected New York City seems to be by a van full of guys in silver suits and motorcycle helmets holding guns and flame throwers exiting immediately the back of the van and then directly heading underground.

I like the one Disinfestor has to run around the side of the van to hassle the one guy walking by.

Soon, all hell breaks loose as Dablone finally gets his men to face the DAS on the streets. There are many moments of slow motion gun fire, fire from explosions, and fire from flame throwers. A lot of characters we saw in passing get killed off. Dablone gets offed to, and he doesn't get the badass send off that Fred Williamson had in the original. The president escapes from Trash and Strike and makes it topside to only find out that he has been double crossed by the vice president and Wangler. Wangler shoots the president and believes that everything is now under control. 

The vice president, in a bright red Porsche, drives through the bloodshed without a care in the world. Strike, who appears to have the most powerful shotgun, takes aim at the car as it passes by.

Ken was still upside down on payments for that car.

Wangler attempts to drive off, but Trash, who shot down a helicopter with a revolver, takes aim. 

Remember, when shooting a gun you have to flex your shoulders and not your face. 

And that's your film. The president and vice president of GCC are dead, their main enforcer is dead, Dablone and many others are dead. There is no actual resolution to the problem of the people of the Bronx being relocated. I suppose Trash has a moral victory because he stood his ground, but at what cost? GCC is likely just going to continue forward with their plan, fueled now by the deaths of their leaders due to the gangs of the Bronx. I kind of think Trash made it worse. Oh, and the biggest thing of all...

NO ONE ESCAPED THE BRONX. NO ONE WAS TRYING TO ESCAPE THE BRONX. THEY ALL WANTED TO STAY IN THE BRONX. THE FILM SHOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED 'STAY IN THE BRONX.'

I feel like director Enzo G. Castellari pulled a Lucy with the football on me. 'Oh, you wanted an Escape from New York style film? How about 1990: The Bronx Warriors? Oh, did you fall for that? I am sorry, what about a film called Escape From The Bronx? Oh. Looks like you lying face up on the ground again, Charlie Brown Paul Steadman. Castellari wins again! Even though I do feel duped, I can appreciate both films for what they were even while I am still lying here on the ground in pain.

Escape From The Bronx really didn't try to knock off Escape From New York all that much more than 1990: The Bronx Warriors did. It did make for a sequel that was somewhat different than the first film and did try to deal with the ideas of escalation and the fallout from the events of the first one. I just wish that those involved saw that they had some really interesting ingredients already in the mix (i.e the insanity of the theme gangs and their costuming, and letting little children be too damn good at modern warfare) and leaned into that and made their own weird post apocalyptic world.

Stylistically, this film does not vary much from the previous one. The use of some really worn down and abandoned city blocks made this world feel desperate and grim. Though somewhat comical, the model effects work and the explosions all still look really cool. I still believe, that much like the first film, that flame throwers were still too close to the actors and I have my doubts that there were no injuries on the set during those scenes. 

Castellari's directing is as workmanlike and solid as it was in the other film. There are a number of great tracking shots that let the scene move forward with just enough detail in the background to show that he put some thought into how he wanted to present this world to the audience. My experience with Castellari is very limited but I am starting to get the idea that the story and plot aren't always the most important part of film making to him. Just like the weird out of place drummer in the previous film that just happened to be there the day they shot that scene, I think if he sees something that works for a particular scene, he will use it, whether it informs the rest of the film or not. 

One thing that Escape From The Bronx has that might just be better than 1990: The Bronx Warriors? The intro theme by Francesco De Masi is kick ass. As I gushed over and over again during my look at Italian westerns, the Italian composers do some of the best and strangest work. This theme will be in my soundtrack rotation from here on out. 

Escape From The Bronx was fun enough ride. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if I had not watched 1990: The Bronx Warriors and knew what I was in for. I just wish someone would have tried to escape other than the president of GCC. 

On a scale of 1-10, how close did it adhere to the film it wanted to knock off?

As we did give 1990: The Bronx Warriors a 5 in how close it stayed with some of the ideas in Escape From New York, I have to give this one a 4. It strayed away from what little it had in common with Escape Form New York. There were gangs, a section of New York was considered off limits due to crime. That's about it. It did present GCC as more of authoritarian force much akin to the United States Police Force in Escape From New York, so there is that.

On the Ator Scale, was it better or worse than Ator?

Production wise it is better than Ator, and it is certainly watchable, but I enjoyed Ator more.

Would you recommend this film to anyone else?

Yes, because I always try to get everyone I know to watch these off the beaten path films. Do I think most of the people I know would give this a chance? Probably not while sober.

Bonus:

If you want to watch the move for 'free,' it is on Youtube. A little fuzzy but it is certainly watchable. It is also currently available to watch on Amazon Prime. 

Bonus Bonus:

If you don't want to go it alone watching this film, you don't need too! Mystery Science Theater 3000 covered this film under the title Escape 2000. 

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Year Of The (Left Behind) Western! #31 Tears of the Black Tiger (2000)

What? Not a blog about a knock off film during the Year of the Knock Off? Yeah, I did have all the intentions in the world to write about the sorta kind of but not really knock off of Terminator, 1992's Nemesis, but I realized while watching it that I was not at all paying attention to the plot it was trying to push its way through. It isn't the worst film I have ever seen and the surprising quality of the action in it is worthy of note (considering it was done on a budget of 2 million dollars), but I just wasn't feeling it. Hands of Steel may have ruined me for a bit as it hit a lot of the sweet spots that I have liked during my and Steve's journey through these odd corners of cinematic also rans. So, I will not be burdening you with my poorly worded thoughts about that film (and overuse of gifs for varying degrees of comedic effect). If you are at all interested in hearing a good conversation about Nemesis and another film done by the same director, Albert Pyun, please check out Episode 360 of Talk Without Rhythm. After relistening to the episode after having seen the film, I agree with El Goro's sentiment that you have to be ready to force some meaning and themes from the film as it doesn't do the best job of bringing them clearly to you. It does have a sweet chase scene involving sliding down a very long mud covered looking water slide, though, so there's that.

Not to worry though, I will be back to the knock offs again real soon.

Alright, now onto something I should have taken care of by now.

It was around this time last year when I put my ass in gear and started finally watching the list of 30 westerns that I had requested from my friend and co-host of Strange Highways, Kevin. The bulk of the list took place between the early 50's through the mid to late 70's, but there was one outlier. Tears of the Black Tiger came out in 2000, and even though I was looking forward to watching it, it did not feel like it belonged with the others as it was 20 plus years newer than the rest of the list. I omitted it and switched in some more Charles Bronson with Breakheart Pass.

I always had plans to come back and watch Tears of the Black Tiger. Like most of my best intentions, it eventually happened. Eventually. I am glad I did. Let's get back in the saddle for one more ride.

Film #31 Tears of the Black Tiger (2000)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

At its heart, Tears of the Black Tiger is a tragic love story between Dum (Chartchai Ngamsan) aka Black Tiger and Rumpoey (Stella Malucchi). The film follows two tracks; the current situation in which Rumpoey, a daughter of a wealthy government official who is being forced to marry a young up and coming police captain against her will and who is hoping against hope that Dum will show up and they can elope together, and the story of how Dum and Rumpoey kept crossing paths as they grew up on very different ends of the social ladder and how they fell in love. 

Dum, unknown to Rumpoey, is a member of a gang run by the infamous Fai (Sombat Metanne) and is Fai's right hand man and best gun. Her forced upon fiance, Captain Kumjorn (Arawat Ruangvuth) wants to make a name for himself and prove his worth by taking out Fai. This sets up a collision course between Dum and Kumjorn and series of hard choices that Dum has to make. 

Additionally, Dum's best friend and rival, Mahesuan (Supakorn Kitsuwon), believes he is the best gun in Fai's gang and is looking for way ways to bring Dum down. 

There is a scene early on where the Black Tiger is sitting on a tree and playing a harmonica (oh which its importance is revealed later) when Mahesuan challenges him to a duel. The image below is from that scene and it shows off the trippy visual palate the film plays with the entire time. 

It is so obviously a soundstage with a painted backdrop but yet it adds to the over the top feeling of the moment. What is not seen here (as I could not find a snippet of this scene to put on the blog) is how Mahesuan, the one in the foreground with his back to the viewer, is pulled sideways across the
sceen to mimic a rotating camera shot but with no camera movement at all. Evidently it is a tribute to Thai films of the 40's and 50's but I took it as deconstructing our expectations of what a showdown can be and it was refreshing.

There is not another scene like the one above in the rest of the film. Its not the only time the film does something entirely different visually for one scene and then moves on. It takes an extreme amount of confidence and knowledge in how film works in order to keep pulling off these cinematic magic tricks and keep the story understandable and flowing, and director/writer Wisit Sasantieng does it well.

The use of color in Tears of the Black Tiger is integral to its dreamlike vibe. There are moments that are completely washed out, almost black and white, but only to have Rumpoey pop in her almost bubblegum pink dress. A lot of solid colors are used throughout, giving the film a very 40's and 50's Trucolor feel to it. It wanted to feel like an older film, but not moored in one particular time period. The use of reporters and their cameras with flashbulbs and the handful of cars shown do suggest it is set in the 50's (and the weapons used also hint at this... more on that later) but then when we are off traveling the plains and rock filled edges of the land it feels like it could be set as the same time as Once Upon A Time In The West. While the version of the film I watched appeared to be a little more desaturated than intended, the color palate is still very striking.

Look at the image below from a scene when Rumpoey is forced to come downstairs at the behest of her 'fiance' Kumjorn. Her dress is now the same blue as the lower floor. She is literally lowering herself to the level of Kumjorn as she does not want to have anything to do with him (In fact she refers to him as Captain and as if he isn't even in the room).

There is also a moment towards the end of the film when Black Tiger is dressed in an all white suit in the middle of a pitch black night with the rain falling that not only visually cuts him out of the scenery with a knife's edge but also shows that he doesn't want to be the Black Tiger any longer. It may be all on the nose, but it is done wonderfully so. 

What is also visually striking and bright? The violence. Not a single gunshot or knife stab goes unrewarded without savage bright red blood and gore. It is very stark against the nature of the love story being told. I found myself caught off guard a handful of times with how abrupt and graphic some of the violence actually was. Check out this below clip where the leader of the outlaw gang, Fai, uses a bazooka to pin a guy against a wall. It is impressive. 

Earlier in the film, Black Tiger sees the reflection of a man he is intending to kill and fires a shot that ricochets multiple times before splitting the man's head like a melon. The film breaks the fourth wall and asks if you saw what happened and then replays the same scene to show you how many times the bullet bounced before killing its target. Wisit Sasantieng does not shy away from the emotional extremes of violence, from the moment of pure badass stated above, or how a single pistol shot can be devastating to more than just the person getting shot. Tears of the Black Tiger is full of contrasting colors and tones and it makes for a more interesting film.

The music also reflects this dichotomy of emotions. There are moments that sound like they belong in a spaghetti western and there at least three different songs that are meant to evoke older Thai pop standards. I will post some of it below but it needed to be noted during my talk of the film as it further puts this film into a dreamlike state. 

Tears of the Black Tiger is very much a blend of Thai film history (admittedly, that I did not know about until watching this film and doing some reading), Italian westerns, and some of the extreme violence that was making its way through film in the 80's and 90s. So it is not a straight ahead western, nor does it claim to be. It happens to have the rough edges of a western with a tragic love story at its center. The film plays like a moving abstract painting, challenging you just to experience and feel it. Like love. And loss. 

Though it may have taken me too long to get this film, I am glad to have finally watched Tears of the Black Tiger. It was nice to sit down and watch this after having some time away from all the other westerns I had consumed and view it on its own terms. If you are looking for something off the beaten path that will set off your imagination, Tears of the Black Tiger is a ride worth taking. 

Western Checklist (nowhere near offical or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? There was on guy named Sergent Yam. He was terrible comic relief. He really yammed it up.
• Beautiful landscapes? Yes. As I am not familiar with the topography of Thailand, it was surprising to see the varying terrains and locations. Very beautiful.
• Any terrified horses? Not that I am aware of. A Black Tiger was stabbed at one point, though.
• How many Ernest Borgnines? None, but man that would have been amazing to see him just show up in this Thai film.
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? No, but it does have song during its title credits. It is quite lovely sounding and reflects the other songs that are heard during the film.

Rating:

I am going to give Tears of the Black Tiger 3.5 out of 5 tin stars. The parts are greater than the whole in this case. Individual scenes and moments carry this film a lot further than they have any right to. The middle part drags a little, but the film doesn't over stay its welcome. See this for what it is: a unique vision of a what a western can be that is not at all set in the west. 

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