HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2020: Gargoyles (1972)

Our sponsor today is my friend, director of such cult classics as Slime City, Undying Love, Killer Rack and Johnny Gruesome--as well as the man behind the Buffalo Dreams Films Festival--Greg Lamberson!  Greg’s latest film, a ghostly cosmic horror shocker starring Craig Sheffer, Widow’s Point, is now available through video on demand, Amazon, Walmart and Deep Discount DVD!

Greg represents The American Diabetes Association!

Greg is a fan of Made For TV Horror Films, which gave little Tom and many like him nightmares in the early 70‘s.  Last year he asked me to talk about John Llewellyn-Moxey’s landmark The Night Stalker, and this year he’s asked me to revisit Gargoyles, a film that I first saw one Sunday afternoon at my grandmother’s apartment on WNYW here in New York.  There was one scene that freaked me out back then, so let’s see if it still holds up!

Mercer Boley (Cornel Wilde) and his daughter Diana (Jennifer Salt, wearing some very...70‘s halter tops) are traveling by station wagon to Mexico so they can do some research for Mercer’s new book.  Mercer does take a side trip to visit the owner of Old Willie’s Desert Museum (Woody Chambliss) to look at a bizarre skeleton Willie claims is a ‘Nakachiko,’ a devil that plagued the local Amerind tribe in the past.  Before they can investigate further, the Museum--and the Boley’s car--is attacked by reptilian creatures that resemble...well, gargoyles.  Diana manages to salvage the skull of the skeleton, which prompts the creatures to come for them, triggering a series of events where Mercer and the local townfolk have to fight the gargoyles to save Diana.

The thing that makes the Made For TV Horror Films of the 70‘s so interesting is that the people behind them didn't have most of the tools Theatrical Horror Films had.  They couldn’t do anything too gory or violent or use language at a certain level due to Standards and Practices, and the budgets were usually so small--even when compared to the grindhouse pictures Chris Honeywell and I discuss on The Honeywell Experiment--that they have to be creative when it comes to special effects and make-up.  This particular film benefits from the work of a young Stan Winston, who designed the creature suits, and he is the true star of the show.  Yes, there are moments where we can see the seams, most of the suits are not articulated, some pieces are used by more than one stuntman, and at one point the female gargoyle’s suit bunches up in a way that makes it clear it’s fabric and not skin, but they’re actually pretty impressive.  And for the first two acts, director Bill Norton knows how to use these creatures effectively.  There are some genuine moments of creepiness that take advantage of the darkness of the night shooting and the isolated nature of the story setting.

Where I think it doesn’t work is when Norton and writers Stephen and Elinor Karpf walk away from the eiree 50‘s style monster movie and turns it into a western.  Once Mercer and the Police Chief (William Stevens) round up what amounts to a posse (including a young Scott Glenn as a biker!) to hunt down the creatures and save the kidnapped, Diana, we’re in Cowboys-n-Indians territory, with our Gargoyles transformed into cliched Amerind raiders.  Putting this last act in the context of what, at that time, would be a worn out genre, squanders all the atmosphere and build up.  Even though the script tries to put the scariness of the gargoyles back on them, it dissipates into the aether when we see the Gargoyle King (Bernie Casey, who was overdubbed with a voice that doesn’t match his grand, theatrical performance) riding a horse!

As for that one scene, involving the corpse of perpetually drunk motel owner Mrs. Park (played with a great deal of zest by Dark Shadows alum Greyson Hall) strung up by the gargoyles as a warning, it’s...not as unnerving as I remembered.  I liked better the shots of the creatures lurking around in the corners of the frame in the early parts (I know one scene, of a gargoyle’s claws clacking against wood as it scrambles around the foot of a bed, creeped out a young Patrick K. Walsh of ScreamQueenz), and could do without them literally jumping from behind ledges to unmount stray dirtbike riders.

Even though it falls apart in the end, I do recommend you see it--especially since it’s available to watch for free on Shout Factory TV.  It earned Winston an Emmy, and is an interesting example of the Made For TV Horror Film aesthetic.

Carrying on the creature feature vibe of today’s essay, tomorrow’s sponsor Mondo Vulgare has chosen another horror film about a mutated monstrosity made for Syfy, The Cable Channel That Sounds Like A Veneral Disease, namely Mansquito, starring Corin ‘Parker Lewis’ Nemec and directed by Tibor Takas.  You might know Takas’ name from The Gate, but for me he will always be known as the director of the excellent I, Madman!  I am super curious to see this thing.

There are Ten Sponsorship Slots Left in the Halloween Horrorfest this year.  To claim one, do one of four things:

1) You can become a Domicile of Dread Patreon at any level.  Patreons always get a free slot, as well as advance access to podcasts and other goodies!

2) You can buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi.  Suggested donation is $3

3) You can make a donation to Black Lives Matter.  Suggested donation is $10.  Please forward your receipt to me as proof.

4) You can choose to make a donation to the charity chosen by a sponsor on his/her/their day. Like with the third possibility, please forward me proof of donation.

As with last year, if I end up with more sponsors than there are days in October, I will go into Horrorfest Overtime, which means Halloween goes into November for me--and you!