Schifrin’s horror thriller is set up with so much obligatory plot devices, and potential victims of our vicious abominable snowman, and yet, I really liked it a lot in the end. “Abominable” has that same old “Rear Window” device borrowing heavily from the formula as Matt McCoy plays Preston, a crippled man healing from a horrible accident who returns to his mountain home to grieve over his wife. Things have changed around his neck of the woods, as a vicious monster is roaming the wilderness killing animals, and Preston really can’t do much of anything in a wheelchair.
There are three reasons for “Bloodsucking Cinema” premiering on Starz! as part of the Fearfest Month. One: there’s the premiere of David Slade’s “30 Days of Night” which is, coincidentally centered around blood thirsty vampires in a terrain where night lasts for a full month. Two: Starz! is ringing in the holiday again with this great two hour documentary, and three: vampires are just flat out fantastic pieces of lore and the occult. Ever since I was a child from Bela Lugosi to Christopher Lee, vampires have been one of my primary focuses of the horror genre. They’re the easiest monster to create for the screen, and they’re the most prevalent, and that’s because there’s still so much to do with the vampire mythology.
Who directed this movie? Was it control freak egomaniac Steven Spielberg (Still my hero, Stevie!), or poor sap semi-talent Tobe Hooper? The debate continues, and I could care less. For me, “Poltergeist” is still one of my favorite horror flicks of all time, and it’s a wonderful combination of both directors’ styles. For the Spielberg nuts, there’s wonder and magic and epic nightmarish fantasy, and for the Hooper fans, there’s the horror, the terror, the frantic energy in the climax, and that great scene of the face being torn from its bone in the mirror. This is a wonderful demented bastard child from two great directors, and “Poltergeist” is simply still a great piece of filmmaking.
What would have been my idea of a great Twilight Zone movie? How about grabbing excellent writers and telling your own stories with twists and commentary. Instead, what we received were remakes of the best episodes of the series regurgitated in to mediocre installments with semi-horror bookends that seemed awfully shoe horned into the script. That’s not what I would have preferred as someone who absolutely loves the series with all his heart. And it’s simply not in keeping with Serling’s brilliant storytelling that’s painfully missed during the run time.
