THE LAST HORROR FILM
Not bad for Spinellophiles
Perhaps intended as a satire, this little film doesn't really satisfy on that level, and doesn't substantially satisfy on any other, but it's still an intriguing enough diversion.
Making frequent references to that nutjob who claimed that he shot Reagan for Jodie Foster, the film focuses on a New York cabbie named Vinnie. Played by Ron Jeremy lookalike Joe Spinell, who specialized in playing pathetic losers, Vinnie dreams of being a great, Oscar-winning horror director, with scream queen Jana Bates as his star. So he gets himself a ticket to Cannes and while his stalker-like behavior towards Bates gets weirder and weirder (swinging in through the window while she showers, for example), people around Bates start dying or disappearing.
It's peppered with goofy fantasy sequences in which Vinnie struggles with the glammy Hollywood director he may become, if he gets his wish, and of course if you're a fan of Spinell's certain brand of psycho, you're likely to get a kick out of this. It was actually filmed at the 1981 Cannes festival - but when the awards are passed out there, are the nominees really ignored and only the winner named...and would a winner really get singled out for being the first Best Actress in a horror film? I dunno.
The villain in the piece is far too obvious - maybe that's part of the satire, but it smells like lazy to me. I mean, when every single thing about every single killing is meant to look like Spinell's doing it, but you don't get to see his face, it doesn't take a genius - or even a rhesus monkey - to figure it out. Gee, d'ya think it's the one guy whose body hasn't resurfaced? And the climax is shot so darkly, I couldn't even tell what the hell was going on.
Interesting note - this Bates character is promoting a ficticious film called Scream, and in one shot, one can see a banner for a film called Stab, with a logo just like the one for the fictitious film of the same title in Scream 2.
It's silly, it's mediocre...and it's fun, if you don't take it too seriously. Lots of "topless beach" shots, too.