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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8578499" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 95: May 1994part 5/5Into The Dark: Rather than picking films based on a theme, James goes for ones connected by a single actor - Lance Henriksen. A reliable tough guy who's also capable of playing against type and showing hidden depths. Like most prolific actors, he's appeared in some stinkers over the years, but mostly manages to keep his dignity nonetheless. There's more than enough to choose from to fill several columns with, so let's see if we're getting the good ones, or the ones that can be amusingly slated. Nightmares was intended to be a horror anthology show like the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. It didn't get picked up for a full series, so they reedited the pilot episodes into a TV movie. Most of the ideas are pretty shallow and cliched. Lance only appears in one of the four segments, which is easily the best one. Not of any great historical interest.Aliens sees Lance playing the android Bishop, one of his most famous roles. This is commonly hailed as a classic, and James agrees with one caveat, it's too long, particularly in the final act and would be even better if they'd trimmed another 20-30 minutes off it. Like most big directors, James Cameron could do with a stricter editor to get things done on time and within budget, especially now, after spending more than a decade wanking around with increasingly overambitious Avatar sequel production.Near Dark reunites many of the same cast & crew for a tale of low-rent vampires, showing realistically how they'd survive and operate in society with their serious sunlight allergy without large amounts of money or mind-control powers. Once again James' only complaint is the conclusion, choosing the cheesy implausible happy ending instead of going full-on with the darkness. Not enough movies are willing to subvert expectations like that. Pumpkinhead, on the other hand is entirely willing to play with the expectations of the slasher genre. Lance plays the guy who calls up the titular demon and comes to regret it. It also more than has the special effects and acting to properly implement it's good story. Despite not doing too well at the box office, it's well worth a watch. The Horror Show is one of those bits of slasher tripe that James only posts about to warn us off. So bad one of the writers is Alan Smithee and it goes by different names in different countries to try and claw a few more sales out. Don't be fooled and waste your money, even if it's in the bargain bin.With three very twee articles in a row, this was well above average in level of irritation, but still managed some useful stuff elsewhere in the issue. So not a great issue overall, but an interesting one. I can live with that. Onto the next one, to see where that falls on both quality and interest levels.</blockquote>

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