B - movie auteur Larry Cohenpassed away March 23at the years of 82 , leaving behind a in truth unique cinematic bequest . As genre fans , we thought it might be nice to celebrate the horror - centric parts of his career .
It ’s authoritative to note , however , that Cohen did n’t only make “ garish horror classics , ” as the New York Times dubbed them in its obituary headline . He got his start working in TV in the fifties , mastermind a few blaxploitation movies ( include 1973 ’s Black Caesar ) , and in more recent decades had rivet more on screenwriting , including penning Joel Schumacher ’s herald 2002 thriller Phone Booth .
Those are all big attainment , but cultus movie buff will always remember Cohen most for his horror / sci - fi films , which include some of the strange , most energetic entries the literary genre has ever seen . desire a crash path in Cohen tomfoolery ? Step right up for these four Cohen classics , plus a doc that gives context of use to Cohen ’s vocation and fussy blade of eldritch genius .
Marketing whiz Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci) has a close encounter in The Stuff.Image: New World Pictures (Imdb)
King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen
If you are altogether new to Cohen ’s films , or even if you ’re a longtime buff , this 2017 documentary from director Steve Mitchell is well worth check out . King Cohen takes you through his vocation with clips from nearly every far-famed projection , interview with actor ( including Michael Moriarty , Yaphet Kotto , and Fred Williamson ) and others Cohen worked with along the way ( likemake - up victor Rick Bakerand author David J. Schow ) , as well as his married woman and his ex - married woman , and celebrated friends likeJ.J. Abramsand Martin Scorsese . But the most important talking headway in the doc is Cohen himself , who proves a highly entertaining presence as he look back on a prolific , fearless career of make movies his way , regardless of what mainstream Hollywood had to say about it .
It’s Alive
“ All the picture I do are all basically consume something that ’s considered benevolent and wrick it into some form of monster , ” Cohen explain in King Cohen , and perhaps the very right example of that iskiller - baby flick It ’s Alive . A sketchy pharmaceutical company ’s to blame when a Los Angeles couple ’s second boy is born a criminal mutation , ripping through every aesculapian professional who ’s present at the birthing ( sparing his mother , gratefully ) and then going on the lam ( complete with bushwhack , depleted - slant POV shots ) .
It ’s a schlocky but really unnerving premise elevated by some very effective elements , admit a score by Oscar - get ahead composer Bernard Herrmann , Rick Baker ’s special effects work on the rarely - seen but still horrifying infant , and John P. Ryan ’s performance as the traumatize father who ’s tempted to turn on his homicidal spawn . Though It ’s Alive was first release in 1974 , it did n’t catch on with audience until it was re - released with a ramped - up advertizing campaign in 1977 — and proved such a hit Cohen later made two sequels , 1978 ’s It inhabit Again and 1987 ’s It ’s Alive III : Island of the Alive .
God Told Me To
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4HoNIzbcA4
Cohen ’s early idiot box career was dotted with crime display , courtroom dramas , and undercover agent thriller , and he would return to variations on those motif throughout his vocation , with a particular fondness for cop characters . But there ’s no police - procedural tale anywhere on Earth quite like1976 ’s God Told Me To , in which NYPD detective Peter Nicholas ( Tony Lo Bianco ) is face with a serial publication of bizarre execution that are as random as they are macabre . ( One such incident , in which an officer played by comedian Andy Kaufman break down berserk at a St. Patrick ’s Day parade , is a school text model of Cohen ’s “ who needs permits ? ” approach , prefer while filming in crowded public spaces ; the crew just evidence up with Kaufman in costume and stuck him into a genuine parade as the cameras cast . )
Each manslayer explicate they did it because “ God told me to , ” a jarring thing for Nicholas , a heartfelt Catholic , to contemplate . But the case make even stranger the closer he gets to the the true , which imply a cult top by a sinister , telepathic leader who shares a very freaky fellowship - tree branch with Nicholas . What filmmaker would dare to make his movie ’s heavy big a glowing , half - extraterrestrial animal with a vagina on its body ? Only one … guess who .
Q: The Winged Serpent
The Empire State Building had King Kong , but in this 1982 tale , the Chrysler Building bring a fauna that ’s arguably even more alarming : a giant hoot - creature that is likely a modern - day coming of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl . The stop - motility animation has n’t mature well — funny storey , but one of the guys who worked on it , Randall William Cook , was by and by on the Oscar - winning squad that come through visual effects Oscars for all three Lord of the Rings movies — and unfortunately it ’s what most people first affiliate with Q : The Winged Serpent .
But like most of Cohen ’s films , Q has so much more going for it than its ogre element . Again , there ’s a police story take shape the backbone of the secret plan , as cops David Carradine ( Kill Bill ) and Richard Roundtree ( Shaft ) puzzle through a series of ritualistic killings that part happening mightily around the time something starts attacking from the rooftops high up above Manhattan . But the real gem here is histrion Michael Moriarty , asterisk in his first of many collaborations with Cohen ; his performance as a highly strung little - time crook who discovers a rather tremendous nest ( which he promptly attempt to utilize as part of his next hustle ) is an unhinged delight .
The Stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7hLdktC_jY
Moriarty also stars in this 1985 horror clowning that cheekily take on consumerism , advertising , and America ’s obsession with debris food , while also delivering some unusually gross special outcome . It begin as a cryptical sweet substance , discovered just casually seeping from the flat coat , becomes a nationwide addiction . Moriarty plays an eccentric ex - FBI federal agent who ’s hired by Big Ice Cream execs concerned that the Stuff is cut into their profits . But corporate espionage soon select a back hind end to basic human endurance when the addictively tasty treat ( contained and commercialise by a sinister party that has zero aim of stopping ) is revealed to be a sentient being that bit by bit eat anyone who devour it from the inside out , but not before they get to drop into creepy-crawly zombie rendering of themselves first !
The Stuff is n’t film in the same run - and - accelerator pedal flair as many of Cohen ’s other motion-picture show , but that just means there was prison term to produce things like fake Stuff commercials ( everlasting with tricky jingles : “ Enough is never enough … of the Stuff ! ” ) that add dimension to what is , in lawful classic Cohen way , “ take something that ’s considered benevolent”—like yogurt , for instance—“and turning it into some kind of monstrosity . ”
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Horror
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