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The Last Horror Film |
An odd one this, and of doubtless appeal to anyone who enjoyed watching Joe Spinell in William Lustig’s notorious Maniac. The Last Horror Film is set around the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, where Spinell stalks fictional horror icon Jana Bates (Caroline Munro, also from Maniac) in the hope that she might agree to star in one of his proposed horror films. Spinell goes to increasingly desperate lengths to get close to his all time idol, and it isn’t long before Munro’s entourage begin to turn up slaughtered... so is the old ‘maniac’ up to his old tricks again? The Last Horror Film is obviously designed to prey upon audience preconceptions of Spinell from Maniac where, in case you haven’t happened to have the dubious ‘pleasure’ of witnessing William Lustig’s film, he brutally slices up defenceless (not to mention character-less) women. Hardly an original plot or one worth repeating and, judging by the end result here, the director of The Last Horror Film would obviously agree. However, in Maniac, Spinell was cast as a disturbed mummy’s boy and, in The Last Horror Film, his role is rather the same. The big difference here is that Spinell plays his character for laughs! In fact, his real life mother actually plays herself in The Last Horror Movie - and, I must admit, this does result in some humorous interludes. Spinell is shown, throughout The Last Horror Film, to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown and he is often depicted crying down the phone to his mum, who refuses to believe that her son is ever going to make a film, and the end result is undoubtedly compulsive. Yet, as enjoyable as these sequences are, far too much of The Last Horror Film relies on a seemingly endless amount of footage shot around the happenings of the Cannes Film Festival. This genuine footage only succeeds in grinding the actual movie to a halt as we are bombarded by footage of huge posters and billboards advertising such blockbusters as For Your Eyes Only. However, for the interested, at one point Spinell walks past a large theatre showing Cannibal Holocaust - perhaps a testimony to a time in which such exploitation films could actually attract some degree of critical attention. Even so, this seemingly endless amount of glorified travel footage really begins to get tiresome. Furthermore, The Last Horror Film begins to get rather predictable as it moves on and I don’t think I’m spoiling anything that you wouldn’t work out for yourself by stating that Spinell isn’t actually the murderer. Yet this is only half of the ‘surprise’ ending as the film moves to a close and Spinell sits with his elderly mother, sharing a joint, and asking her opinion of his ‘masterpiece’. Yes, it’s all been a film within a film. It might be a little funny but it’s hardly unexpected. In saying all that, The Last Horror Film has at least a couple of worthwhile set pieces - Munro running around Cannes at night, chased by her stalker and clad only in a bath towel, only to be applauded by onlookers who presume it is a publicity stunt reaps some laughs. Moreover, the scene in which a chainsaw wielding Spinell saves Munro closes the movie in a Friday the 13th style, bloodbath fashion. There is certainly some originality in this little shocker, but it is far too few and far between and the film really does begin to tire. It’s still a far better movie than Maniac, lacking that movie’s gross misogyny and actually being blessed with something approaching a plot, but The Last Horror Film could still have been a far better movie than what it is. As it stands - it is little more than a stalk and slash flick with accomplished performances, some degree of humour and the odd glimpse of innovation. Perhaps if the film didn’t move so slowly then that would be recommendation enough. |