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5
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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A
tongue-in-cheek homage to the drive-in B pictures of yore, The
Halfway House deftly blends elements of the women-in-prison,
nunsploitation and slasher genres with —
of all things —
Lovecraftian horror. This is exploitation with a wink and a
smile... and boobs. And blood. And a flesh-eating monster from
beyond time and space!
When a young
woman vanishes into thin air while out jogging, her worried
sister Larissa (Janet Tracy Keijser) goes to the police for
help. To her frustration the cops treat the incident like just
another routine missing person case. One detective, however,
handsome Sgt. Dick Sheen (Shawn Savage), lends a sympathetic
shoulder. He tells Larissa that in recent months a number of
women have disappeared from the Mary Magdalene Halfway House
for Troubled Girls, a Catholic charity located along her sister's
jogging route. These disappearances haven't been reported in
the media because it's believed the girls simply ran away rather
than serve out their time —
a logical assumption. But Larissa senses a connection. She cajoles
Dick into helping her find out more. (Having sex with him does
the trick. She's very determined.) Making an unofficial visit
to the halfway house, he spots the institute's creepy handyman
(Cleve Hall) wearing the same kind of radio headphones that
Larissa's sister had on when last seen alive. A coincidence?
Larissa doesn't think so. Posing as a homeless chick she has
Dick bring her to the halfway house and ask Sister Cecelia (Mary
Woronov) to take her in, thus saving her from a sordid life
of drugs and prostitution on the streets. The nun immediately
agrees. After all, it's the Christian thing to do...
Sister Cecelia's
mask of benevolence falls away as soon as the door closes behind
them. "Screw up here and you'll wish
you were never born," she warns the new resident.
Nor is Larissa made to feel especially welcome by the other
girls, particularly Angelena (Athena Demos), the queen bitch
of the dormitory. The only one to show her any measure of kindness
is "Cherry Pie" Polowski (Stephanie Leighs), a virginal, sweetnatured
lesbian with an affinity for rubber gloves and Vaseline. While
snooping around, Larissa discovers that the director, Father
Fogerty (Joseph Tatner), is a closet spanking freak with a collection
of fetish mags and bondage implements stashed in a cupboard
—
he uses a paddle with 'JESUS' stenciled on it to discipline
the girls when he feels they deserve a few good thwacks on their
tight, tender behinds. Sister Cecelia and Lutkus, the panty-sniffing
handyman, behave rather suspiciously, spending a lot of time
down in the boiler room. And not long after Larissa's arrival,
two more girls from the house go missing in as many days. Are
they, too, just runaways? Or is something much more sinister
afoot?
You bet there
is!
The
Halfway House is a thoroughly unpretentious horror-comedy
which strives to be nothing more than entertaining and fun.
With its gratuitous nudity, lesbian canoodling, rubber monster
attacks and occasional dash of gore —
all competently helmed and staged —
it largely succeeds. Made by people with a genuine love for
the horror/exploitation films of the '60s, '70s and '80s, this
is exactly the kind of flick my buds and I would hope to see
when, back in the day, we piled into the car for a night at
the local drive-in. Writer/director Kenneth J. Hall (creator
of the original Puppetmaster and
honcho of special effects outfit Total Fabrications) maintains
a fine balance between the horror, sexploitation and comedic
elements, never letting things get too campy. On the technical
front, budgetary limitations may be obvious but there's no behind-the-camera
ineptitude resulting in unintentional cheese —
this is a professionally made film. Since the movie was shot
on digital video, care was taken by director of photography
Tom Callaway to give it the appearance
of traditional film stock —
there aren't any "blow outs" due to bright light sources, for
example. This definitely gives Halfway
House a leg up on most independent DV genre productions.
Generally the
acting is of a higher caliber than one normally expects in a
microbudget feature. Anchored by B-movie legend Woronov (Cannonball,
Eating Raoul), the otherwise unknown
cast is enthusiastic and fully into the spirit of the piece.
Of special note are Janet Tracy Keijser (Witchcraft
XII: Lair of the Serpent) as plucky heroine Larissa and
Stephanie Leighs (The Stink of Flesh)
as the not-so-innocent Cherry Pie. I hope to see more of these
appealing, talented ladies in the future.
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Two
different DVD editions of Halfway House
were released this week, an R-rated version and the Unrated Director's
Cut. The latter disc is the version screened for this review.
(The former reportedly snips out the Vaseline scenes; beyond that
I'm not aware of any specific differences between the two.) The
non-anamorphic transfer is letterboxed at 1.85:1 and looks quite
good. A choice between Dolby 2.0 Stereo and "simulated" 5.1 Surround
audio mixes are offered. Both are strong and clear, with the 5.1
track sounding punchier and more robust as expected.
For
extras the DVD comes with the "unrated" (i.e., nudity-filled)
trailer, a music video of the closing credits song by punk-metal
thrashers Insecto Circus, a short reel of deleted scenes, a documentary
featurette and an audio commentary. Entitled Gut-Eating Monsters
From Hell, the 39-minute behind-the-scenes featurette contains
interviews with director Hall, producer Ed Polgardy, all the principal
actors and various special effects artists and craftspeople. (It's
interesting to see the construction of the dungeon set and the
monster.) Hall and Polgardy team up for the mostly scene-specific
commentary track, discussing cast members and locations in addition
to the challenges posed by the brief 12-day shooting schedule.
Unfortunately, about midway into Chapter 2 the track goes out
of sync, running approximately 1½ to 2 minutes behind the onscreen
action being referenced.
8/25/05 |
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