Three new releases from Severin Films last month run the gamut of bizarre amateur production to a movie I ended up really identifying with despite its bizarre premise and style. Bizarre is the commonality, but would you expect anything less?
The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals is the amateur entry. At 81 minutes it still pads itslef out with slow dialogue spacing out each word. But you do get to see a mummy and jackal roam the streets of Las Vegas in 1969. They beat the Leprechaun to The Strip by a few decades.
In the bonus features, experts explain how the money ran out and debunk excuses that director Oliver Drake was senile. Those bonus features also explain the production company giving us context for what we just watched.
A Dog Called Vengeance is much more engaging, though it’s also two full hours. It begins with a chain gang escape and goes into political rebellion. Jason Miller is a recognizable face as the prisoner going through the turmoil.
Bonus features interview an actor and the director’s daughter, both reflecting on how filmmaking kept the principals away from their loved ones. It really drives home the sacrifice for art.
But the one I ended up really responding to was The Creature, and it is perhaps the weirdest of the three. Ana Belen plays a woman who miscarries but forms an obsessive relationship with a dog, much to the chagrin of her husband (Juan Diego).
This is a human situation that defies reason. When one experiences the loss of a child, no one can say how it’s appropriate to grieve. As an animal love too, I appreciate the needs pets can fulfill in between relationships. She’s still married, but the marriage has problem regardless of the miscarriage.
Of course, The Creature goes there with allusions to bestiality, though thankfully without endangering the canine actor. So I don’t condone that, but having covered genre film for 25 years it’s not even the top five weirdest movies i’ve seen.
It does not surprise me at all that Gaspar Noe likes The Creature. In fact, that explains many of his films, but what a get for Severin to have him talk about the film.