Edgy and Androgynous: (An Interview with Eileen Dietz)

EDGY AND ANDROGYNOUS DIETZ    

(An Interview with Eileen Dietz: By Jerry Saravia)

Eileen Dietz in The Exorcist

Every time a magazine article mentions "The Exorcist" on their list of best horror flicks, there is a picture almost always of Eileen Dietz. Eileen Dietz? Yes, the actress who played the black-and-white, androgynous Pazuzu demon (Captain Howdy to some) in subliminal flashes and in certain shots as poor little Regan strapped to a bed. Dietz dribbles a little vomit here and there, smacks a doctor in the face, and is used in a fantastic superimposition of Pazuzu and Regan's dummy in close-up. If anyone has read Mark Kermode's "The Exorcist" analysis, it is Eileen Dietz who graces the book cover and not Linda Blair.

Eileen as Jillia in Planet of the Apes TV series

But "The Exorcist" is not the only film she starred in. There is a slew of other credits including the TV movie "Helter Skelter," "David Holzman's Diary," the cancelled, long-running soap "Guiding Light," "The Clonus Horror," "You Light Up My Life," the TV-series "Trapper John, M.D.," "Planet of the Apes" TV series (in one episode, she played Jillia), to name but a few. I have not even mentioned the numerous independent horror and thriller films she has appeared in, including 2010's "Freeway Killer," thanks to her agent whom she has told, "I love being in front of the camera so much that I will choose mostly any role as long as its not politically incorrect for me or involves salacious scenes."

Eileen as Family Girl in Helter Skelter

Prior to making her film debut in 1966's noirish "Teenage Gang Debs" (where she is credited as Eileen Scott) and taped shows for children with actress Jean Stapleton ("All in the Family") in Hershey, PA., Eileen Dietz had a "one-line scene" in the NBC daytime soap, "The Doctors." She later appeared in 1967's "David Holzman's Diary," a stunning mockumentary directed by Jim McBride about a filmmaker who epitomizes the phrase from Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom" - "All this filmmaking isn't healthy." Dietz plays the role of Penny, Holzman's girlfriend, who is filmed while she is sleeping in the nude. "I didn't want to do the nude scene," explains Dietz. "But I figured nobody will ever see the film." The film never got distribution despite having Dietz's nude scene featured in Life Magazine's photo spread and in the book of the film. She didn't recall if she auditioned for the role of Penny but she added, "it was a fun shoot." A recent celebration screening of the film in New York was a letdown for her since she was not invited due to the event organizers inability to locate her. 

Eileen Dietz in the photograph held by Holzman in David Holzman's Diary

Dietz did appear as Young Girl with Anthony Perkins in a 1970 production of a play (which Perkins also directed) called "Steambath," where she had another brief nude scene in a shower (the play deals with a steambath standing in for the afterlife). In addition to "The Exorcist," she became typecast as an androgynous, edgy character in everything from "Happy Days" ("I was someone on the edge with a 175 I.Q.") to a cameo as Family Girl in the terrifying TV movie "Helter Skelter," where she blurts out the film's last line, "Death is what you're going to get!" She also played a mental patient named Sarah Abbott in another long-running soap, "General Hospital." In "Guiding Light," Dietz actually went to the Bahamas to learn scuba diving for a role that lasted six months. She was so flabbergasted by the preparation for the role, especially going to the Bahamas, that all she could say was "You've got to be kidding? I am getting paid for this?"

Eileen has had some regrets. She reluctantly moved from New York to L.A. to get away from the "Exorcist" controversy. For newbies to this aspect of her life, "Exorcist" director William Friedkin (a director noted for his relentless and tough demands to accentuate reality on screen) had told the press at the time that all physical actions performed by Regan in the film were performed by Linda Blair, the film's star, including performing the demon's voice (you can actually hear the preliminary sound recordings done by Linda Blair herself in the Exorcist DVD). The truth was that Eileen Dietz performed some shots involving the possessed Regan ("Don't ever call me a double for Linda!"). The voice of the demon was attributed to the late Mercedes McCambridge, who almost received no credit and sued to get it. Eileen did not receive credit for her work in "The Exorcist."

Eileen Dietz continues to have a very active career on television and in films (and attends many horror conventions to meet her fans). She has been typecast as the androgynous, strange, edgy type, and has also played her share of demons, evil nurses, zombies, homeless women, junkies, etc. She has written a book that will be out in stores in September, 2012, titled "Exorcising My Demon: An Actress' Journey to the Exorcist and Beyond." It will focus on her life and "it reads like a novel. It is written as a fictionalized version of my life." Naturally, a chapter on Captain Howdy will be featured. Edgy, indeed.

For the fans of Eileen Dietz: She will be at the Con X as a guest to their horror, sci-fi and pop culture convention on September 14-16, 2012 in Kansas City.

Make Room for Terry O'Quinn

STEPFATHER II (1989)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I suppose a sequel was inevitable to the original, watertight, exciting, suspenseful "The Stepfather," a film that developed an audience when it premiered on cable and video. A thriller with a number after it and a subtitle that reads "Make Room For Daddy" is asking for trouble: read "exploitation." Therefore I was surprised that "Stepfather 2" does not take the low road, and tries to focus on the characters with an ironic sense of black humor that is likely to be missed by most.

When we last left off with the Stepfather, he was shot and stabbed on the chest by his stepdaughter (Jill Schoelen). He somehow survived his near-fatal wounds and had since been placed at the Puget Sound mental institution. But you can't keep a balding, intelligent family man down for too long. This man craves a family and will go to extreme lengths to get one in good old suburbia. He escapes the loony bin by posing as a guard and assumes a new identity as a psychiatrist in some remote suburb of California. He is now Dr. Gene Clifford (a name he picks up in the obit section) with his own private practice. His next-door neighbor, a realtor named Carol (Meg Foster), shares an interest in him, makes him dinner, introduces him to her skateboarding son, Todd (Jonathan Brandis), and before you know it, good old Stepdad is ready to throw the old pigskin around and take Polaroids of his new potential family. Dr. Clifford also shows the kid how to use a hammer and nails with precision (oh, and he teaches him how to whistle "Camptown Races.") Clifford's patients seem to trust him except for the mail carrier (Caroline Williams, fresh from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2") who has her suspicions from the start and opens his mail! Terror is slowly creeping in when mild-mannered Clifford loses his temper after Carol's ex-husband starts showing up.

"Stepfather 2" was directed by Jeff Burr, who helmed the atrocious "Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III" and "The Offspring." Although suspenseful at times and tension-filled, Burr does lack the visual style and sense of community in typical American suburbia as strongly evidenced in the original film. This California community seems sparsely populated and a crucial scene in a park, shot with a long lens, diffuses any sense of community (though we hear sounds of children playing, we never see them). I almost got the impression that Clifford, Carol and other characters were the only occupants of a ghost town. Another scene in a backyard party also feels like it was shot too tightly. This is a shame because we never get the sense that the Stepfather is living the American dream - marriage, kids and a house with a white picket fence in tree-lined avenues. Close-up shots of garages and junkyards don't really cut it.

Also noteworthy is how this Stepfather manages to afford renting a home by pretending to be a shrink. I recall one Newsday reviewer commenting on this fact, stating that David Janseen's character in the TV series "The Fugitive" always had to work menial jobs to support himself. After Clifford's escape from the institution, he kills a guy with lots of money and credit cards - but is that still enough? How does Clifford initiate a practice in the first place? It would have been great if we saw how he immersed himself in this town. I can buy the Stepfather as a real estate agent or an insurance salesman, but a shrink with a private practice?

There are elements that do work. Terry O'Quinn still gives a dynamite performance showing the meek-looking, all-American Everyman with an impending threat of violence, thus switching from a smile to psychotic rage in a heartbeat. He still brings a layer of sympathy for someone who has forgotten that dysfunctional families are more common than functional ones. Clifford is a man who has grown up on television sitcoms where every problem was solved in half-an-hour. When he searches for a home, he watches Bob Eubanks on "Dream House." There is a delicious bit where he tries a video dating service and finds that not one woman interests him. But a family that can't disappoint him at all is unlikely - he is behind the times to say the least. O'Quinn makes "Stepfather 2" work - he is the movie.

Meg Foster as the divorced Carol has some moments, though her alien eyes make her appear more strange than intended - she is not as homely as Shelley Hack in the original. She does have one superb line after kissing Clifford's scars - "You are the kindest man I ever met." Jonathan Brandis has the thankless role as the typical American kid who loves skateboarding. His character is practically given nothing to do, unlike Jill Schoelen's suspicious stepdaughter in the original. Only the spunky Caroline Williams has more punch as Carol's best friend, and the scene in the park where she confronts Clifford with hardcore evidence of his true identity is quite stunning.

"Stepfather 2" is a good enough sequel with lots of black humor to make up for undernourished characters. It is a purposeless movie but for those who are fans of the original, it is a welcome return for one of the more interesting psychopaths in many years.

Keeping it Mooney-real

THE GODFATHER OF COMEDY (2012)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Paul Mooney is the premier commentator and social critic on race in the United States. When Paul frequently talks about race with humor and understanding, he speaks of it as a long-gestating venomous attitude that hasn't changed since the days of slavery. When he cuts deeper into the recesses of racism, it is unspeakably and necessarily offputting. It makes one think of the nature of racism, its prevailing existence and what it dictates about our society. What can I say, Paul Mooney always scores a direct hit to the funny bone - he is also the thinking man's comedian.

Ever since he put to rest the N-word in his comic act, Paul Mooney has not softened his bitterness or his anger. In his new Showtime special, "The Godfather of Comedy," he espouses on celebrities such as Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, Dr, Laura, Sarah Palin, Mel Gibson, Angelina Jolie, for starters. He claims that white people have stolen from the African-American community, everything from a now white-owned Apollo theatre, to a residentially white Harlem where he lives, to O.J. ("they took him and then they gave him back to us"), to the BET channel (" We still got Jet"). He doesn't spare us from calling Sarah Palin a "ho" or Lindsay Lohan. He reminds his audience that Cleopatra was black (hence, the title of one of Mooney's past shows) and the potentially cast Angelina Jolie playing the Egyptian queen in another epic remake is a blow to Hollywood and to the rest of us. Mooney also says that most black people in California are "anglo-saxon." To clarify, he says, "Their skin is black but their brain is white. They are 'Graham Crackers'."
 
Paul Mooney has some really riotous and engaging humor in the beginning (he is hilarious in his Tiger Woods put-downs), but when he segues into "white dolls" and the realities of past segregation in Louisiana (his home town) and being singled out daily for being black ("I am tired of being black"), the audience is still attentive but they are alarmed by the blatant, uncomfortable, cringing truths (there are white and black people in the audience, including "Facts of Life" actress Kim Fields). Paul Mooney is the Godfather of comedy but he also fully understands discrimination and the fears of the white man. Notable bits include how he stepped out of his car in a suit and a white woman, who saw him, took off her high heels and ran. Another one is a recycled joke he told before about how he was riding shotgun with a drunk driver, the police pulled them over and asked Paul for his I.D. And then Paul went to jail!

"Godfather of Comedy" is not for everyone - Paul Mooney is not for all tastes either. Dressed impeccably in a suit with a fedora and extremely well composed (asking his audience to remind him of certain names he forgets, though I think he knows them already), he is the antithesis in appearance to his late friend and co-writer, Richard Pryor. Pryor could be a wild animal on stage and had a gift for mimicry. Paul Mooney is always looking at his audience in a more restrained, intimate stage. He is an immensely likable presence who wants you to listen and he wants to keep it real. At the tender age of 70, Paul Mooney is still keeping it real.

Don't Piss on hospitality

TROLL 2 (1990)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Troll 2" can be summed in one phrase: best good bad movie you might ever see. I've seen my share of good bad films that manage to entertain in spite of everything else that goes wrong ("Plan 9" is infamous, of course, but there is also "The Third Society," less well-known but worth watching because it is not boring). But "Troll 2" is something more unique, a fifth-rate B movie that is so woefully misguided and executed that, somehow, it actually works because it is so damn entertaining. If the filmmakers admitted they made a parody of "Village of the Damned" or something of its ilk, I would've said this was exceptionally hilarious. The fact that the filmmakers intended to make a serious horror movie makes this a special good/bad movie with its own special place in the annals of idiotic cinema.

"Troll 2" has no relation to the original and very dull "Troll" from 1986, which starred Michael Moriarty, Sonny Bono and I think one angry troll. At least it had a higher pedigree than this movie, which may be the only sequel where "in-name only" feels like a cheap understatement. This movie was supposed to be called "Goblins," just as other notable films by the Italian director Claudio Fragasso like "Terminator II" and "Evil Dead V" had alternate, original titles with no relation to their popular U.S. titles. Moving on, a family goes on a vacation trip to the town of Nilbog (anyone that can't guess what that means...) where it is so sparsely populated that there doesn't seem to be a functioning grocery store (they offer unrefrigerated milk for free and it ain't Parlamat!). Lo and behold, Nilbog's residents are all goblins (hate to spoil that for anyone) and there is a resident witch living in a church with a crimson red bed in its lobby, as well as a portal to Stonehenge, and lots of plants! The family have a son (Michael Stephenson, the best actor of the bunch) who has visions of goblins eating the chlorophyll remains of dead people with green ooze in their mouths! He figures out what the town of Nilbog is up to, thanks to the spirit of his beloved grandfather. By the way, the house the family actually trade for their own has handwritten signs of the occupant's names taped on their doors.

For laughs, we get little Stephenson urinating on green-iced cookies and cake (we know he will do it when he opens his fly); the grandfather's spirit getting lost in the house; the witch seducing a young teenage boy with corn on the cob that turns into popcorn; a sheriff offering a teenager a cheeseburger with green ooze (now who would willingly eat that?); a silly jamboree; another hapless teen turned into a plant, holding a flower pot; an 80's dance scene, and there is so much more that I can't keep typing this nonsense. This is the kind of movie where any description of any scene must be followed by an exclamation mark.

What is "Troll 2" about? I can't say except that the town of Nilbog and its hungry goblins care about the environment and are vegetarian. However, they like to eat people but only after they pollute their victims' blood with chlorophyll mixed with cheeseburgers (from some 24-hour burger joint in town) or with vanilla cake and cookies. So, to destroy the goblins, it might help if you are armed with a double decker bologna sandwich that has no trace of chlorophyll. This begs the question: if the goblins are strict vegetarians, where do they get the unrefrigerated cow milk? (Unless it is Parmalat). Also, they are surrounded by the forest, so why don't they feast on plants and leaves instead of feasting on people and turning them into plants? Yeah, there is irony here but it is so slapdash and so absurdly presented that I classify it as un-ironic and unintended irony. That last statement makes about as much sense as the movie.

Apparently, the English-speaking actors in this ultra low-grade horror (shot in Utah) were not able to communicate with Fragasso (using the alias Drake Floyd) or the crew because they all spoke Italian. That explains a lot, but I can't say I was bored by this movie. It is so entertaining and so unintentionally comedic and so inanely acted and directed, it is hard to resist. It is a new high in the lower margins of fringe filmmaking. Suffice to say, once you have seen "Troll 2," you can't unsee it.

For a review of the documentary, "Best Worst Movie," check out http://jerrysaravia.blogspot.com/2012/05/dont-piss-on-troll-2.html

Don't piss on Troll 2

BEST WORST MOVIE (2009)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Never before has a movie gone directly to video (with only the barest of theatrical showings), get slammed by critics and then get revitalized as some sort of cult film. In addition, it is a sequel and in-name only. That is the story of "Troll 2," a movie championed by comedians Patton Oswalt and Conan O'Brien and once you see it, you can't forget it. It is ashamedly awful but not purposely, and that is part of its charm. And now a documentary on this film pops up, "Best Worst Movie," and it shows how "Troll 2" had in fact changed the lives of everyone involved in it.

George Hardy ("A rich man's Craig T. Nelson") is an Alabaman dentist, a good-natured, jolly fellow who can tell when you have gingivitis. He played the family man in "Troll 2" who tried to rescue the family from goblins, not trolls, who want to eat them and turn them into vegetables! Hardy admits he was a bad actor giving a bad performance, but he always had that dream of acting. He gave it up out of respect to his father and became a dentist with a string of patients, and helps poor kids for free. He is loved in the community and dresses up as a tooth fairy annually but he is not loved for being in "Troll 2." Eventually, a fundraiser screening is held in town. Hardy's past as a jolly male cheerleader, however, may lead to some chuckles.

Director Michael Paul Stephenson (who played the young Joshua in "Troll 2") spends most of the film focusing on George Hardy. We also get tidbits on a sage actor who played the grandfather specter and feels he has wasted most of his life; Margo, who played the mother in the family, is now a delusional woman taking care of her sickly mother, and claims that the film's quality is closest to "Casablanca" (!); and there is the actor who played the shopkeeper in the film, who suffers from mental illness and has no recollection of what he did in the film.

Claudio Fragasso comes off the worst. He is the Italian director who helmed "Troll 2" and thought he was making a masterpiece, a film that is allegedly anti-vegetarian. Yet he scoffs and berates his cast at Q & A's, telling them that they have a poor memory about the film's production. Truthfully, at the time of production, he couldn't speak a lick of English and neither could do the crew. Claudio is amazed and angered that people laugh at the film - is he kidding?

"Best Worst Movie" takes us through sold-out U.S. screenings of "Troll 2" and the legions of fans who declare it the best movie ever. We also see the reality of an unintentionally funny horror flick that can barely muster enthusiasm at U.K. conventions. When there is a Q & A, few people are in attendance. The horror fans rather see the Nightmare on Elm Street ensemble. This documentary is mostly bittersweet about a film that was a failure and somehow found an audience, but it did change the lives of those involved. The actors who thought they would never work again after making "Troll 2," found work after the film got a cult following (and one actress would still rather keep it off her resume). At least we can say that the cast is now in one film that is a good/bad movie and another that is actually quite good.

Not quite a scream, baby

SCREAM 4 (2011)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

When I first saw the original "Scream" in 1996, I was floored by its first half and felt underwhelmed by the second half. It was good for what it was but it needed that injection of Wes Craven's postmodernist deconstruction take that he laid on with "New Nightmare" two years earlier. "Scream 4" begins with a nifty prologue-within-the-prologue, gets mired with characters I could not give a lick about and then, something happens. By the second half, "Scream 4" picks up the pace and tempo and has a gripping finale. Is that enough to save it? Not sure.

We are back in Woodsboro for the return of the survivor of the bloody rampage of the first three "Scream" films, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), now the author of a self-help book. Her last stop on her book tour is Woodsboro, a place I would not think of stopping by considering her past, bloody traumatic experiences there. Of course, Mr. Ghostface, that iconic Edward Munch-face from the iconic painting, "The Scream," is back killing teenagers from Woodsboro High. It is the anniversary of those bloody murders from eons ago and now, horror of horrors, a dead body is found in Sidney's car! Who is this new Ghostface who can run faster than the Road Runner and materialize almost anywhere with phantom-like precision?

Let's not forget that Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) is now the sheriff and married to bored Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox). Dewey is in charge of the case of the growing number of murdered teens. Numbed and shocked Sidney stays with her cousin, Jill (Emma Roberts), and is referred to as the Angel of Death. But is Sidney really responsible for the resurrection of Ghostface, or is it the shy film geek (Rory Culkin) who declares that horror remakes have upped the ante on gore and invented new rules? Actually, I take issue with his mantra of horror facts because horror remakes are simply gorier but they are hardly inventive (Zombie's "Halloween," anyone?) Or could the killer be Sidney's overzealous publicist (Alison Brie from TV's "Community"), or is it the canny party girl (Hayden Panettiere)?

As I had mentioned earlier, "Scream 4" goes off the rails after a truly riveting and meta (yeah, that word for the box-within-the-box) opening sequence that shows clips from "Stab" films with two girls watching one scene, and then we learn that scene is being watched by two other girls! It is the most original and witty sequence in the entire film. Once the film shifts to the real world of "Scream 4," things go downhill. Dewey and Gale have a fight over Gale's insatiable desire to return to the media world. Sidney Prescott looks only slightly befuddled by the murderous, blood-on-the-walls events around her. I started getting bored wondering if there was any fuel left to rev up this screamified engine. Alas, a little bit of fuel.

After a slow start, "Scream 4" turns up the blood-splattered dial to 11, and there is a welcome burst of comic energy thanks to the terrific Courteney Cox. Her character, Gayle, wants to keep an eye on the "Stabathon" all-night party at a local farm (All seven Stab films are played annually at this event). The audience of teens relish the kills with glee (eeek!), and Gale sets up cameras on haystacks to track the real killer. Meanwhile, Ghostface slices and dices past Jill's friends and family and eventually confronts Sidney, but who is the killer and are there two of them? Will the cops watching Jill's home survive this ordeal?

"Scream 4" is full of the requisite postmodernist winks that the series built itself on. 71-year-old horrormeister Wes Craven ups the bloodletting but not the focus on character, though that is largely writer Kevin Williamson's fault. The stabbings become repetitious and frankly dull - don't want to sound like a prude but there is far too much violence and not much of it carries any sting or surprise. Neve Campbell, a fierce, animated actress who brought so much humanity and sensitivity to Sidney Prescott, is on autopilot here - she walks through the movie. But the last half of the film does in fact work, and there is a devilish surprise that kept me on the edge of my seat. I do like the remarks from these modern horror-savvy teens about horror remakes but they still haven't figured out how to outsmart the killer. This could've been Craven's attempt to really revitalize the genre by truly deconstructing it and making something new out of it. Four Ghostface movies and he has still only scratched the surface.

A Whisky-Soaked Ace of Spades

LEMMY (2010)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

If there was ever a nuclear war, all that's gonna be left afterwards are a load of cockroaches and Lemmy

I have only listened to a couple of Motorhead songs recently (I am not a heavy metal listener, only a beginner). I liked what I heard - the rickety rhythms, the gravelly voice of Lemmy himself - it does sound more like rock than metal. So I guess I was not surprised to hear that Lemmy himself doesn't consider Motorhead to be metal. Such are the surprises in store for a humane portrait of the cult singer outlaw icon, Lemmy, in this fascinating if slightly long-winded documentary.

The Staffordshire-born Lemmy the Lurch was actually named Ian Fraser Kilmister. Before possessing his Richenbacher bass guitar and receiving the success of Motorhead, he was part of the Beatles-type group, the Rockin' Vickers. Lemmy also knew a world when rock and roll did not exist - it was inevitable that it would exist and he would be part of it. He was once a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, had been a band member of Hawkwind from which he was fired for using speed, and made his way into Motorhead which Ozzy Osbourne claims was truly the first metal band (though Black Sabbath technically preceded them).  

What is fascinating about this rock legend is that he is practically superheroic. At the age of 62, he still drinks a jack and coke everyday (and has for thirty years) and lives near L.A.'s Rainbow Room, a bar for rockers and heavy metal musicians. He still sings and rocks like nobody's business. He still tours, plays video games, watches "Family Guy," collects World War I and II memorabilia and plenty of knives for their aesthetic value (he has a vast knowledge of military history), and talks to only one of his sons. Lemmy is unapologetic about his alcohol intake ("He is a lion," quips one rock and roller) and doesn't give a damn what others think of him. But he is also resolutely human. He speaks with a tinge of sadness about a girlfriend from the early 70's who died of heroin, a drug he is opposed to. Lemmy mentions only in passing about his father who left him at a young age, and declares his son to be the most important aspect of his life.

Other than that, this documentary glorifies the man, the rocker who won't quit, the one who Foo Fighters (and former Nirvana drummer) Dave Grohl claims is the real deal as opposed to the neutered Keith Richards (I suppose the argument is that Keith Richards used to be a wild man and Lemmy is still the same). Later scenes inside a tour bus seem to run on forever (a little editing might have benefited). Directors Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski provide small shards of insight (such as Lemmy's crucial letter to the husband of former Nashville Pussy's bassist Corey Park insisting he did not have an affair with her) but I imagine only as much as the whiskey-soaked man himself will allow. If I can't love the film because of its adoration of this rocker without the slightest hint of criticism or opposition, I do like Lemmy himself. Unapologetic, friendly, humble - he is the ultimate rocker on the surface but I also sense a man who is in touch with his soul and with the people in his life. He doesn't have many regrets and doesn't live in the past.