Director: Don Coscarelli
Rating: 6 out of 10
Man, I would take the 70's decade for horror cinema over any other decade. It's the decade that brought us Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Alien, Black Christmas, The Amityville Horror, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, The Exorcist, Jaws, The Omen, Suspiria and this film, amongst others. Look at that list! You had Brian DePalma, Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott making horror movies, something we may never see again. Some of the industry's greatest directors were helming genre flicks, when all we get today are first-timers and music video directors.
Ok, enough about that. This is one weird little movie, but not too weird that it loses the audience. It's just weird enough that you're not quite sure which direction they're going in. Most people probably see the title and immediately think of the deadly chrome balls the Tall Man uses on his victims and associate that with the horror of the movie. However, much like Pinhead in the first Hellraiser, who also became the face of a franchise due to fan interest and studio incompetancy, they actually play a tiny role in this original film. The film more closely revolves around the strange goings-on around a creepy old funeral home run by the Tall Man, which is how's he referred to in the movie. There's also a psychic, some kind of tuning fork portal to another dimension, the aforementioned killer flying balls, the shape-shifting Tall Man...and I didn't even mention the creepy little zombie dwarves that serve as the Tall Man's evil minions. It's weird. But, given the low-budget, I think it accomplishes a lot with very little. There's very little cast, sparse shooting locations, semi-cheesy gore effects, and one bad-ass black 1972 Plymouth Barracuda.
I think I'm a little on the fence with this one. There was some good initial set-up for a solid horror movie, but sadly it falters as it gets closer to the conclusion, which is a deal-breaker for me. I feel like it's the budget that began to be a hinderance as the movie continues on, as somehow things start happening that are not explained, and finally it concludes with a cop-out ending that doesn't fit the story. I'm going to point to the budget constraints because I don't want to believe the filmmaking was that lazy or that Don Coscarelli just couldn't think of a proper way to end it. The set-up deserved better than what it was given. Damn suits.
Next: Ummmm....errr
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