The Last Horror Movie — The Last Horror Movie (Blu Ray)
From the early 80s, The Last Horror Movie is a decidedly unpredictable blend of slasher, movie business satire, dark comedy, and fly-on-the-wall film festival documentary. It features Joe Spinell (Maniac, The Godfather Part II) as an obsessive NYC taxi driver, and Caroline Munro (Slaughter High, The Spy Who Loved Me) as the focus of his obsession, a horror starlet. The film takes place during the Cannes Film Festival, and it’s certainly a distinctive/if-haphazard creation. Here from Troma Films is a recent Blu-ray release taking in several commentary tracks and a few other extras.
From the year 1982, The Last Horror Film (The Fanatic, Fanatical Extreme, Love to Kill) was directed/co-written by London-born David Winters. Between the early 70’s and mid-2010s, he had seventeen credits to his name- a racing car doc featuring Paul Newman, Once Upon a Wheel (1971). South American set action-adventure Mission Kill (1988), sloppy put-together Sci-fi Space Mutiny (1998), and pop musical Dancin': It's on! ( 2015).
The film kicks straight into sleaze & violence as we see a woman with very fake-looking breasts stripping off to go in a nighttime whirlpool tub. A figure off the side places an electric cable in the tub, and she starts bucking in the pink neon-tinged water- we pan back to realise it’s a film playing in the cinema, and sitting watching it is the very sweaty looking Vinny( Spinell) who is doing up his zippy as the lights come up.
As we get into the film, we find out that the middle-aged and moustached Vinny is a NYC taxi driver. He lives with his ageing mother(who is a truly terrible actor), and he’s very obsessed with making his own film, with Jana Bate(Munro) his favourite actress. So, he decides- with his Black & white video camera, to head off from the States to the French seaside town of Cannes- to see if he can meet Ms Bates & get her to star in his film.
The one-hour and twenty-four-minute film blends fly-on-the-wall/off-the-cuff footage of the film festival. Camp/ soapy like drama, touched by Staire/ dark humour, and slasher. It’s a decidedly tonally uneven film- which at points does somewhat unbalance itself.
As you’d imagine, Spinell is the highlight/ key reason to watch the film, as he portrays well the sweaty/ seemingly unhinged taxi driver. Munro is fine- though does rather move between being somewhat flat and overdoing it. The rest of the cast is passable, and we even have Winters playing the director within the film, who is behind Jana’s new horror film.
The victims of the slashing action are those connected to the film-within-film production, with the fairly impressive gore/ kills moving between the already mentioned electrocution, two decapitations, a face burning, a slugging axe attack, etc.
I’m of course very familiar with Maniac, William Lustig’s sleazy and troubling slasher/ psycho thriller, which featured both Spinell & Munro. But for someone who had never seen The Last Horror Film- I’ll have to say it’s certainly a curio/interesting crossbred, which I’m not sure wholly works, but has its moments of effectiveness, and of course great acting from Spinell.
Moving on to this recent ‘Tromatic Special Edition’ Blu-ray. It’s region-free, and I’m not sure if it’s the film has been given a new scan or not, but the picture and sound of the film all look good/ fine.
On the extras side, it’s a little difficult to define what is new and archive here, but as far as I can gather, there are three new things here. First is a commentary with Luke Walter( Spinell’s best friend) and Severin’s David Gregory. This is somewhat hit and miss, because while Mr Gregory is asking some great questions, Mr Walter often wanders off with his replies to talk about something else/ or repeats what he’s already said. We start by finding out that the pair first met at a BBQ- where Spinell was claiming he was the oldest at the event, Luke said he was older- and from then they became firm friends. They discuss how Spinell was rather unpredictable when they were in Cannes- doing things like climbing over a hotel balcony in the nude, sitting having breakfast on the beach with two topless women, and drinking lots in the evenings. We find out that the apartment at the start of the film was Spinell’s own, and it’s his real mother, so that explains the lack of any acting skills. Gregory tries to get him to talk about memories of certain locations- but Walter more often than not drifts off point. We find out he was very paranoid when they were in Cannes that he and Joe were going to get arrested. It’s an ok, if somewhat frustrating track- it’s worth a play, though I think most will find it rather trying.
The other (I think) new extras are Like A Father Figure (21.11), which is an interview with actor/musician Sal Sircia, who became great friends with Spinell in the last few years of his life. This is a really fascinating insight- he talks about how Joe would often ring him at all times of the day/ night, and we even get to hear some of the recordings from the answer phone tapes he kept. We find out that Jo actually worked as a NYC cabby, and the taxi in the film was the one he used in his job, though when he was driving his own car/ not working, he was often most unpredictable, often hanging out of the door. He talks about when he found Joe dead, and he visits his grave to play one of his favourite songs on an acoustic guitar. There’s NYC and Cannes location tour(14.23).
On the archive side, we get the following. Two other commentary tracks- one with Luke Walter, and one with Caroline Munro and writer Alan Jones. My Last Horror Film (18.58)- an interview with the film's producer Judd Hamilton. And Mr Robbie (8.04) this is short from 1989, and is somewhat of a semi-sequel to Maniac. There are also a few unrelated Troma bits and bods.
I’m certainly glad to have finally seen The Last Horror Movie after hearing so much about it over the years. This new release is fine, with a decent scan and a few worthy interviews. There’s no doubt the film is a real curio with its haphazard blend of frictional slasher and off-the-cuff documentary, so I'd say approach with caution/ know what you're getting into