Shudder Two-fer (Entwined / Lake of the Dead) and Stepfather Revisit (Shudder Content)

 Entwined (2020) 3.5/5

There comes a point in the film where "big city doc", Panos, has tended to this seemingly gangrenous skin disease (crusty, black, deteriorating) of Danae, but when he goes to return to the main road and his parked SUV, he can't find his way out of the ever "entwining" , all-enveloping, overwhelmingly suffocating, all-engulfing wilderness. She tells him that perhaps the woods are "protecting" Panos, keeping him from a cruel outside world. Danae seems hellbent on keeping Panos with her, even as he claims what helps her flesh is some medicine. Danae indicates that the fire in her cabin must be kept burning in order for her to remain well.

I sort of caught on to a trick of the film regarding the old man in Danae's cabin. There is this immediate thought of him being her father and their sexual activity being incestuous. But when Panos is able to get him out of the woods and finds himself stuck in the woods, that little lightbulb went off in the thought bubble above my head.

Obviously Danae is something quite otherworldly. Danae tells Panos that the trees and nature are connected to her and if he was to leave she would "return to her roots". So Panos has to make that decision. Does he forgo his past life and remain with her? As long as Panos gives himself to her, those "wounds" disappear.

This landed on Shudder and I never heard of it. I see that it is considered by fans of "folk horror" as belonging to it. I agree. Especially when Danae's vitality seems to come from the youth of Panos where nature's strange alchemy ages the good doctor. The woods protects her...does it really protect him?

Never has a harmony sent out of the cabin been so tragic, far-reaching as a summons to another whose youth Danae can steal.

Lake of the Dead (1958) 3.5/5

Dream psychoanalysis, sibling romance obsessive jealousy, dangerous telepathy, the ties that bind two with similar tendencies towards their sister living and dead, the moonlight wood where spirits get stirred up, the emerging presence of the black crow, and visiting friends to a cabin located too close for comfort near a tragic lake with a sinister story attached to it... beautifully stark photography of quite an idyllic backdrop, even if a majority of the Norwegian cabin-in-the-woods mystery features a good bit of chatty character interaction, lengthy exposition, and psychology-layout. I didn't mind the heavy leaning on character interplay, because I liked the party congregated at the cabin, I think just a bit more spooky spirits-of-the-night content would have generated even more of a thrill by me towards this unexpected little B&W Norwegian gem.

Watching this at the wrong time, I learned from catching it the first time on Shudder's Folk channel quite early in the morning, the film's leaning towards talking characters trying to determine how to locate the missing brother, Bjorn, of Lillian among their entourage, and the dark-fairy-tale nature of the setting, isolated at one cabin surrounded only by wood and water, could bore or captivate depending on your state of mind and fatigue of the day. I think, for me, this would be best viewed when I'm not so fatigued by the work day, because it isn't too concerned with pacing and measures the creepier aspects in a spread-out manner. I liked the decision of the film to use Bernard and his wife as the presenters of the story, since they are so likable and have such good chemistry. And all the characters have different personalities, some more serious than others, to make each other distinguishable.

Severin proves that preservation and cultivation of lesser known films is essential since there is actually an audience of all kinds waiting for them.

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The Stepfather (1987) 5/5

I think the problem this film has with newcomers is maybe they believe this is a slasher film and should feature the tropes. He doesn't really kill a lot of people in the film. Yes, when the perfect family ideal is fracturing, such as Schoelen's teenager acting out because she has problems after the loss of her father just a year prior, sees a therapist (who is eventually killed by Jerry with a 2X4) for it, and struggles to accept this new man in her mom's life due to his death, Jerry's control is triggered as he goes into the basement to vent loudly. No one vents like O'Quinn when that facade breaks down! But Jerry, within the film's story after the latest family massacre, kills the therapist (setting him up as a car accident explosion in order to get away with it), and Jim Ogilvie (the murdered wife's brother).

So this doesn't have a high body count. That's why I just don't apply slasher to this film. I think psycho thriller is best to describe it to people so they go into it knowing this isn't a slasher.

I believe this is Schoelen's lone nude scene. She is part of the B-movie unit of horror that Ami Dolenz later filled in the 90s. Those of us who rented the likes of "Curse 2: The Bite" and "Popcorn" just fell hard for her. I think this is her best film, though. O'Quinn certainly went on to be a fantastic television actor, but besides John Locke of "Lost", this is my favorite character of his career. The sequel, which I hope to watch this Saturday again, is more of a slasher.

My daughter has seen the sequel and has been haggling me to watch the first one with her. I just recently picked up the DVD of the film, and after revisiting this classic late 80s psycho thriller on Shudder tonight, she already wants to see it again this summer (when I plan to watch it on the recently purchased DVD).

I personally think this is a perfect film within its genre. Lifetime Movie Network has damn near used this film as a model for so much of its vast programming!

I think Hack is the one who often gets left out of the conversation because O'Quinn is so superb and Schoelen's stepdaughter is such a smart and resourceful character, but she is quite good as well as the mother who falls for the same facade other victims of families slaughtered by Jerry Black (or whatever name and identity he chooses in order to find some perfect, old fashioned, traditional family he so desperately craves and kills for over and over) have...O'Quinn is so recognized for this role because his psycho can slip into a disguise --typically as an insurance salesman of some sort, or in this film's case, a real estate agent, so that he can bring families to homes, since this is what he also always searches for and can never find because there is no perfect family situation; this endless search always suffers setbacks because his standards are so ridiculously high -- and fool everybody.

What I have always appreciated about this film is how Schoelen's Stephanie just feels something's off about Jerry. Despite Hack's Susan really wanting her daughter to give Jerry a chance, Stephanie just can't let go of this bad vibe she (correctly) has about him. Not too far from their home is the former family Jerry massacred (the opening as he walks to the door where blood and dead bodies are scattered all over the place is still shocking), so that news gets to Stephanie who pursues the picture of him. Jerry wearing a beard and shaggy hair can't hide the distinctive features of his face. So his interfering with that does momentarily deter her pursuit of who Jerry really is.

I have noticed a trend in psycho thrillers of the family member who is searching for the killer of a sister or brother, mother or father, actually coming across that killer, only to be vanquished. I saw that just recently when Angela kills the cop father of a young man she killed at camp in "Sleepaway Camp III". "The Stepfather" has Stephen Shellen as the brother of the most recent wife Jerry butchered (as well as her daughters). Sadly, he rushes to the aid of Susan but can't pull his gun before Jerry adds some big knife thrusts into his torso. It is sort of a bait and switch. Spend time watching this dogged search for the killer with a determined hero, only for that hero to get so close but unable to stop him.

But the film has Stephanie just making logical decisions to hide or escape through a closet into the attic, whatever it takes to defend herself and stay away from him. I like that despite Shellen's brother not being able to take out Jerry, his gun does assist Susan, who was hit in the face with a phone when Jerry realized he got his identities mixed up in one of the film's best moments. How would Jerry not get mixed up with other identities and families...scarily, we don't really know how many families he has possibly destroyed in a psychotic rage.