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Frankenstein vs. The Creature from Blood Cove (2005)
Dir: William Winckler
Dr. Monroe Lazaroff (Larry Butler) is working on a top secret project for the
American Government in a secluded house by Blood Cove, using a serum invented
by the legendary Dr Frankenstein.
He is trying to create a genetic ‘Super Creature’ to be used to combat
terrorism(!)
His assistants in the scheme are Dr. Ula Foranti (Alison Lees-Taylor) and the
facially scarred Salisbury (make-up FX guy Rich Knight) who, after a run-in
with one of Lazaroff’s creatures, sports a very impressive claw mark across
his eye and cheek.
The amphibious ‘Creature’ (played by Corey Marshall, and looking
like “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”) does not take to being
controlled by the serum though and escapes.
In desperation Dr. Lazaroff and crew hop onto a plane to Shellvania to retrieve
the Frankenstein‘s own ‘Monster‘ and use that instead.
After a run-in with a Werewolf (as you do) they get the ‘Monster’
(Lawrence Furbish) back to the lab only to find he has a will of his own.
Meanwhile the original ‘Creature’ attacks the ‘Frisky Kitty
Cat Magazine’ nude photo-shoot crew working on the beach.
The photographer, Bill Grant (Director, William Winckler), his assistant Dezzirae
(Dezzirae Winkler, the director’s wife) and their camp as a row of tents
make-up guy Percy (Gary Canavello) flee the ‘Creature’, as it feeds
on their unfortunate model, and end up at Lazaroff’s house where the good
Doc holds them hostage and Frankenstein’s Monster takes a shine to Dezzirae
who he thinks is his long lost ‘Bride’!
When, just to add to the chaos, Frankenstein’s ghost turns up and the ’Creature’ and the ’Monster’ go head to head it seems scientific order has gone out the window and no one is safe….
Shot on digital camera and then given a (very nice) pseudo 35mm finish, William
Winckler’s “Frankenstein vs. The Creature from Blood Cove” is
certainly an ambitious independent production and most certainly done with a
lot of love.
And there is a lot to enjoy here as well, but it’s perhaps not the movie
it could have been for certain reasons, and definitely not the movie it seems
to be marketed as.
The DVD blurb (and Winckler himself) heralds this as a homage to 40’s/50’s
mad scientist/atomic monster flicks and the basic plot and black and white Cinematography
(a very nice job by Matthias Schubert) would seem to bare this out. But a lot
of the content and general attitude does not.
Online views would seem to prove that the biggest problem people have is the
abundant nudity in the film, something not seen in the film’s it’s
meant to homage, and to a lesser extent the occasional bit of bloodletting.
As such it has attracted some negativity.
And I agree. Which is why I personally don’t see this as a homage to 40’s/50’s
films.
For me “Blood Cove” actually plays more like (the brief full frontal
nude glimpses aside) a 60’s Drive-In movie. The Horror films of that time
did indeed mix old-school monster plots with abundant bikini scenes and even
some mild nudity now and again like Barry Mahon’s “The Beast That
Killed Women”.
They also added a splash of gore (“The Horror of Party Beach”) to
indeed give us a cocktail of 40’s/50’s monster madness with increased
sexuality and violence that the 60‘s allowed.
And THIS is what we get with “Blood Cove”.
Some needless swearing though (given the type of film it is) moves it away from
even that era and can only be seen as a miss-step.
So, if we put the, primarily self-made, misconceptions of what the film IS
to one side (and if you do that, you probably won’t have any issues with
the breasts and blood) , what else is left that can be used for more legitimate
criticism?
Well for one the film is too long and has a tendency to wander rather aimlessly.
It most certainly could have been tightened up nicely if the two photo shoot
trips to the beach (the first trip simply has the crew see the ’Creature’,
with no attack) had been reduced to one.
The second shoot, when the ’Creature’ turns up again and attacks them
this time, is the one that pushes all our main characters together and so it’s
job done. To make this a return trip, after being told to go back and get the
shoot completed by the magazine editor, was completely unnecessary.
It would also make far more sense as, no matter how angry your boss is, I can’t
see anyone returning to the beach to do more cheesy glamour photos if they had
seen a monster there!
Removing the first shoot may mean we miss a few breasts, but it would drastically
increase the movie’s energy.
Certainly the removal of this sequence could give time to the hinted at possible
sub-plot involving the put-upon Salisbury and the isolation (and disrespect)
his disfigurement causes, but as it is it never comes to anything in the end.
The other criticism is with the ‘Creature’ vs. ‘Monster’ fights. Obviously given the budget the makers had to be careful with the ‘Creature’ suit and the ‘Monster’ prosthetics and as such the fights are not much more than rough and tumble skirmishes with lots of slapping and pushing. Something more meaty was certainly needed here.
But let’s leave the negativity aside and concentrate on what woks, and
more importantly what entertains, here.
The ‘Creature’ suit is lots of fun and captures the old school FX
perfectly. It’s hard to criticise the sometimes obvious creases in the
suit when the Creature moves as quite frankly such things are what we somehow
expect! It works brilliantly quite frankly.
The Frankenstein Monster make-up is a mix of the classic Karloff look with
a spot of Lon Chaney Sr. “Phantom of the Opera” in the white colouring
and ghoulish nose. And again…it does the job it sets out to do. It’s
well made but slightly hokey and that’s exactly as it should be, as that’s
exactly what the Drive-In movies gave us.
The Werewolf (Corey Marshall again) is rather more dubious, but it’s certainly
an ambitious suit/make-up job.
Frankenstein’s Ghost (guess who? Yep it’s that man Marshall again)
is also a very nice double exposure effect to create a suitably transparent
apparition.
The dialogue is also enjoyable and, as is quite frankly essential, suitably
tongue in cheek and theatrical. A nice example is after Lazaroff and co have
a run-in with a doomsayer Gypsy woman in ’Shellvania’ (a nice cameo
by Raven De La Croix from Russ Meyer’s “UP”)
Lazaroff rants; “Crazy superstitious woman! She’s mentally disturbed”!
And you have to love the toast he gives; “Here’s to unconventional
warfare”!
And of course the FX themselves have to take a bit of a dig as this line
shows after the photo-shoot crew run into the Creature; “It’s just
some jerk in a rubber suit!…Hold on, that ain’t no rubber suit”!
There’s also nice verbal nod to the classic giant ant flick “Them!”
The gore is basically just a spot of blood with suitably moist flesh ripping
sounds, but we gave a pretty impressive dripping arm stump as well as some fun
remains where all is left are bones and a pair of breasts! Was this purely a
gratuitous gory remains shot, or a joke about silicon (and as such inedible)
boobies?
Talking of which, we have plenty of mammary moments as the photo-shoot girls
do through their routines and during a sequence set in a strip club. All very
nice, all very welcome but they perhaps stop the plot in it’s tracks…which
again is 100% 60’s/70’s Exploitation and nothing to do with 40’s
monster movies.
There plenty of humorous moments, entertaining performances and fan homage’s here, but Winckler also takes things seriously when he (and the film) needs to, and overall the camp vs. the serious (which even in this whacked-out plotline is essential if the entire thing is not going to become a complete parody) is a pretty even and successful match.
The movie also creatures the most unusual plan by a hostage to get someone’s
attention ever…thankfully it’s a plan not carried out! The moon was
thankfully not full.
A few in-joke/goofy cameos are supplied by porn icon Ron Jeremy and good old
‘Mr Troma’ himself Lloyd Kaufman as strip show patrons!
The score is interesting too.
Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake‘ (the only music used to score Lugosi’s
“Dracula”) is used heavily on the soundtrack to great effect but Mel
Lewis' original music is also effective.
Ultimately then things could have been better with tighter editing of the script
and finished product ,if the monster fights had been more punchy and if the
nods to 60’s Drive-In cinema had been used in the marketing, as opposed
to the 40’s/50’s movies, because too much of this goes against those
older films.
But in the end all the positive aspects mentioned above ultimately come together
to create a polished, well made, enthusiastic Indy production that shows great
promise for the future.
For an Indy DVD release the extras are very impressive.
We have an audio commentary by director Winckler and cinematographer Matthias
Schubert that covers the production technically, but is also full of little
anecdotes (like shooting on a nudist beach stocked with nosy, naked old men)
and insights into low budget production in general.
There are two behind-the-scenes features (where we can see the actors without
their makeup) and a documentary exploring how the filmed was scored.
Audition footage shows us the process of picking everyone from the models (who
do indeed work in nude photography and even hardcore porn), to the main character
actors.
A short blooper reel is also to be found, along with a few deleted scenes (mostly
plot and a few bits removed from the fights), the trailer and a segment where
the Frankenstein Monster (in colour!) is treated to his very own lap dance!
Go HERE
for more details.
