Frightmare aka The Horror Star(1983):
One of the biggest ironies about people who object to the horror genre, is how, inspite of their continued efforts to portray everyone associated with the genre as a warped sicko, the vast majority of the actors who made the genre their niche, if certainly not flawless, were generally remembered either as painfully normal or extraordinarily nice and courteous in real life. In contrast, most comedians, children's entertainers and respectable stars of A-films have stories numbering in the thousands about how hellish they were to be around off-camera.
As I said, it's an amusing dichotomy. I also think I can say with some certainty that there's truth to this theory, based off of my interactions and in some cases genuine relationships(I was good friends with the late Ray Dennis Steckler/Cash Flagg and visited him frequently at his video store, I also encountered the great John Carradine multiple times walking down the street when I lived in LA. I wouldn't say we were friends, just friendly frequent accquaintances) with several horror/exploitation icons either at conventions or run-ins.
However, wouldn't it be cool, if for once there really was a horror film actor who was just as much a monster off camera as on? It's a pretty terrible film by-and-large, but 1983's Frightmare(not to be confused with the 1974 cannibalism cult classic of the same name) aka The Horror Star offers you a chance to see such a concept in action.
We begin with a sinister shot of a gothic house, the camera zooms in closer though the coutrtyard and swirling mist! We enter the abode as fog rolls in through the windows. Everything is starkly lit, ominous organ music plays, a vampire enters the room! This film wastes no time in getting to the goods! It doesn't fuck around, it--
Just kidding. It's a filming set where a ludicrously elaborate vampire-themed commercial is being shot. The director cannot stand aging horror film star Conrad Ragzoff(Ferdy Mayne, who you probably know by now is one of my favorite D-listers). The feeling is mutual, so Ragzoff settles their difference the gentlemanly way: He pushes him off a building with his cane. I like this guy already.
Not in the best of health, the old buzzard soon suffers a minor heart attack while giving a speech, and decides to go out with a bang by making his funeral an elaborate one. Ragzoff must have a bunch of hidden superpowers, as he has this hilarious little ability to brutally murder people in plain sight and just walk away from it without any fear of even being questioned. He even does this to a guy in his own house shortly before his death. How come no one notices this when they come to retrieve his own corpse? I guess it's morgue rules that only one body be given a shit about at a time. Also, we never do find out whether the guy Conrad murders is ever discovered.
Conrad is buried(like Lugosi, in his cape) in a ridiculously elaborate high-tech tomb and his funeral becomes huge news. However, his body is stolen by a group of the most non-descript teens ever committed to film for reasons that are never adequately explained. Conrad's widow then contacts a bitchy psychic, who communicates with his spirit. Apparently, this draws him not just out of hell, but brings him back to life with super powers as well, and he then proceeds to kill off the teen characters one by one. You can guess the rest.
For as interesting a concept as this is, the end result is one of the shoddiest horror films of the 80s. Director Norman Thaddeus Vane directs the film no differently than your typical slasher film, the difference being that the villain is wearing a gothic cape rather than a giallo-style disguise. Vane tries for some moments of ominous gothic atmosphere, but these are few and far between, coupled with some truly godawful cinematography which ranges from fluent(the zooming camera) to home movie level-amateurish. The lighting suffers from the same case of split personality as well, in some scenes it's really effective and Dark Shadows-esque, but then it becomes so murky you can hardly see anything. Who screwed up this lighting? At least I know where Christian Bale was coming from now...
The plot holes are numerous as well. Why would an actor like Ragzoff, reduced to starring in commercials and who was apparently never a big-time horror personality the same way Vincent Price was, but a slummer in B-films like George Zucco, recieve, and have the resources to finance, such an elaborate funeral? And also, why would anyone care he died? I don't remember Vincent Price getting this kind of national remembrance when he kicked the bucket. Also, if Ragzoff supposedly had the resources to pull off a stunt such as this, how come the teenagers are living in what clearly is his house? Did Mrs. Ragzoff rent the place out that early? Dialogue from the teens seems to indicate that they've lived in the place for some time. If this isn't the case, this is the single worst attempt to pass off the same house as a different one I've ever seen.
Speaking of these teens, my god are they bland. Hardly a single one of them is ever mentioned by name or has time to register in the mind's eye. Many of them disappear even before Conrad comes back to life or are introuced only to serve no purpose in the story. There's not even any designated roles like the jock, the nerd, the slut(although one girl mockingly tells Conrad's corpse she always wanted to be his bride), the token minority or anything like that. They're so bland they don't even become annoying. It's like these people aren't even actors, just a bunch of people who the camera was left rolling in front of who feel inconvenienced that they're being filmed. Why do they steal Conrad's corpse anyway? For the monster-masks party they throw? Other than making the corpse dance and talking in a mock-necrophiliac manner to him, none of them even seems to care at all. The only thing that can be said about any of them is that one of them is played(in an extremely minor role, so minor I didn't even see him) by a young Jeffrey Combs. Take a quick guess as to who get's top-billing on DVD's and bootlegs of this movie.
The Conrad Ragzoff character also just bugs me for several reasons, for one, it's never clear just what his last name is. It's alternately spelled Radzoff, Ragoff and Ragzoff. Because most characters pronounce it Ragzoff, I go with that spelling. It's also never clear just what he becomes after being revived. He displays vampiric fangs and blazing eyes, but also displays various powers such as levitation that imply he's demonically posessed. So if it's not him doing all the killings and just a demon in his body, why set him up as a killer even before he dies? Bizzare. Nonetheless, inspite of Mayne's memorable(and he still is nowhere near as good as he was in Fearless Vampire Killers)performance which sets him up as an asshole(and has more than a few traits in common with Christopher Lee), Ragzoff ultimately becomes the only character we really care about in any capacity. It's clear he dearly loved his wife and fans. He's certainly more interesting than the teens, though quite frankly that isn't saying much. Something could have been done with the idea of a man associated with passe gothic horror who wreaks vengeance against obnoxious modern teens, possibly turned into a parable about the conflicting generations of horror fans, but sadly nothing was. After he returns from the dead, Ragzoff is essentially Jason Voorhees in a Dracula costume. At least some of his murders, such as a beheading, a live cremation and a levitated coffin used to bash someone's head in, are somewhat clever.
Frightmare/Horror Star deserves some credit for attempting someting retro in an era of mostly slasher films, and it's not a horrible film by any means, just amateurish, unimaginative and boring, but ultimately I can only recommend it for 80's completists only. 1983's House of the Long Shadows, for all it's flaws, is a much better tribute to the spirit of classic horror. Still, the concept has potential, so for once, perhaps a remake would be the route to go.~
The Horror stars at their most menacing in real life.