Review by Ben Bussey
This is a really rather strange film. Okay, so it’s a 1982 low budget slasher starring the same key players as Maniac; perhaps it goes without saying that it’s rather strange. But this reunion of Joe Spinnell and Caroline Munro is in a world of its own for strangeness. The Last Horror Film (not to be confused with The Last Horror Movie) is typical enough of early 80s horror in that it’s a grisly, sleazy affair with excessive gore and gratuitous nudity in abundance – yet it’s directed by an ostensibly respectable Hollywood guy, David Winters, best known for starring in West Side Story (having even appeared in the show’s original run on Broadway). Its setting is pretty far removed from your standard stalk’n’slash fodder too, as it was largely shot guerilla-style at the Cannes Film Festival. On top of all that, it’s very close to being a musical, with a slew of soft rock songs detailing the journey of our main protagonist – Spinnell’s Vinny Durand, a sweaty, socially awkward, dangerously delusional New York cabbie (yep, he’s really playing against type here) who’s high-tailed it to the French Riveria intent on tracking down his idol, scream queen Jana Bates (Munro), and luring her to star in his own film.
Yes, this is another of those films which stands as firm proof that self-aware, self-referential horror existed long before Scream showed up – making it all the more curious that the film Munro’s character is in Cannes to promote is entitled Scream. Yet in a way, The Last Horror Film also demonstrates the pitfalls of such an approach. Like so many of the smug, pseudo-post-modern slashers that came in the late 90s, this is a horror movie that’s anxious to prove how smart it is, to point fingers at the conventions of the genre and laugh; yet at the same time, as it’s working within that same genre, it’s also out to give the viewer exactly what they expect. That old have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too scenario (although I’m still not sure what else the inventor of that maxim thought we should be doing with the cake instead, but I digress). Well, to use yet another old adage with a masticatory angle, The Last Horror Film bites off quite a bit more than it can chew. It has some great ideas and some great moments, but it never seems to have a clear sense of just what it’s trying to achieve, and as such it can’t help but wind up an unsatisfactory experience.
Of course, any film that stars Caroline Munro and Joe Spinnell can never be a total loss, even if it’s not up to the standard of their earlier collaboration. Spinnell, unsurprisingly, is more than up to the challenge of portraying the deeply disturbed Vinny Durand. Everything about him screams creepy guy you cross the street to avoid, and much as was the case in Maniac, Spinnell succeeds in making the character as sad and sympathetic as he is terrifying; indeed, I daresay this is all-in-all a more sympathetic portrayal. Now, for those who’ve never seen Maniac, this should be absolutely fine; for those who have, however, it all just feels rather too familiar. Happily, Caroline Munro gets a bit more to do this time around, in what is perhaps one of her most substantial roles. As movie star Jana Bates, she’s slap bang in the middle of the Cannes glamour, and fits right in there. The bulk of the supporting cast aren’t quite so impressive though.
Any horror movie set within the world of movie-making which has a horror movie fanatic as the principle antagonist is immediately setting itself up as having a point to make about the audience’s relationship with these films and their makers. The problem is, it’s never really quite clear what point The Last Horror Film is trying to make. Sure, there are a few portentous bits of dialogue, such as journalists asking Munro if she’s worried about her films inspiring copycats, and – curiously – Spinnell confronting a filmmaker over the graphic gore in his movie, saying he shouldn’t be allowed to shoot such things. Oftentimes the film would seem to be siding with the horror-phobic moralists – but then, as I said, it still revels in the sleazier aspects of the genre. One rapidly loses track of how many voyeuristic shots of anonymous topless sunbathers are thrown in to fill dead time – of which there is a staggering amount. Indeed, one of the biggest problems of The Last Horror Film is how painfully repetitive it gets, with a montage of Cannes set to cheesy soft rock every five minutes or so, and a meandering narrative that leaves you befuddled as to just where they’re going with all this.
And then, once we reach the finale, it seems quite clear that no one involved ever had the first clue where there were going themselves. I won’t spoil anything, but the ending scenes of The Last Horror Film are jarring in the extreme, hinging on a climactic revelation that strains what little logic there is to absolute breaking point – culminating in a cheap gag of a final scene which a) makes no sense whatsoever, and b) ultimately serves to undo pretty much everything that went before and leave you wondering what the hell the point of it all was. Like I said – very, very strange. Still, I wouldn’t dismiss The Last Horror Film as being without entertainment value, but it’s without doubt more a curiosity than anything else.
Much as the film is a somewhat bewildering mixed bag, much the same can be said of this Blu-ray edition from 88 Films, which I gather borrows heavily from the edition previously released in the US by Troma (as the presence of an introduction from Lloyd Kaufman would suggest). This is presented as an uncut edition, but the two brief moments of restored footage are of such a painfully bad picture quality that you half-wonder why they bothered; the moments don’t add much to the film in any case, other than a smidgen more gore, if you can make it out through the thick black shadows cast over the image. Extras-wise it’s a little odd too, as we have an interview with William Lustig – i.e. the director of Maniac – and a videotaped Q&A with Caroline Munro from a screening of Slaughter High… in which The Last Horror Film is not the topic of conversation. Agreeable enough viewing for fans of these people, for certain, but not especially relevant to the film in question. Still, there is a quite touching interview with Luke Walter, a close friend of Spinnell and associate producer on The Last Horror Film, which reflects on his relationship with the late actor, with particular reference to The Last Horror Film.
The Last Horror Film is out now on Blu-Ray in the UK, from 88 Films.