Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Endgame (1983), Inferno (1980)


Hoo boy... This movie. THIS movie. This MOVIE. Hoo boy. 


It's a poverty-grade crossover between Mad Max and The Running Man and Escape From New York and Toxic Avenger or similar mutant drama. The print on Amazon Prime is atrociously poor quality, all bleeding colors and blurry detail. 

This movie wraps around from Bad to So Bad It's Entertaining right back to Bad again. Our hero, played by Al Cliver (who now has resorts in Bali!), is the winning contestant on a Running Man-style game show in post-Apocalyptic New York. He is hired by a mutant telepath to take a group of other telepaths out of the city to safety. He hires a crew to help him, including a man named, simply, "Ninja." 

Predictably, nothing goes right. The dialog is poor, the action is poor, the pacing is poor, the script is poor, and there is absolutely nothing to recommend this movie unless you are a completionist for the Mad Max clone genre. Avoid. 





Inferno is the sequel of sorts to Dario Argento's Suspiria, but has none of the impact whatsoever. I intensely disliked this movie - it moves slowly but without a sense of dread. The gore comes out of the blue but remains unscary and unconvincing. The best thing about about the movie - by far - is the great soundtrack by Keith Emerson. 

The idea is that there is a Mother of Shadows who is killing people ... because? It's her job I guess? What else is a Mother of Shadows going to do? 

Wait, who cares? This movie has no substance, only style - it LOOKS great, deep blues and blacks pervading each scene. But it has no soul. Some say this is the most underrated horror movie of the '80s. It's not. Avoid. 

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