Editorials
We Pay Tribute to the Genre Career of Michael Parks
While the loss of beloved actor Michael Parks was a blow to all of filmmaking, the world of genre film is especially devastated at his absence. Though his career began in television with appearances on Gunsmoke and Perry Mason, he was already dipping his feet in the waters of suspense and horror early on with The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Police Story.
Park was a TV mainstay in the 1970s, playing handsome cops and criminals in Get Christie Love! and The Streets of San Francisco. His genre work began in earnest in the late 1970s, with a role as a doctor trying to stop a deadly outbreak of African bees in 1976’s TV thriller The Savage Bees.
He followed that up with another TV movie in 1978, Night Cries.
It was the end of the decade, in 1979, when Parks teamed with cult horror director Charles B. Pierce for The Evictors. The filmmaker, famous for his pseudo-documentary The Legend of Boggy Creek and the early slasher The Town That Dreaded Sundown, followed those films up with this lesser known but equally compelling piece of Southern horror. Parks played the devoted but often absent husband to Suspiria’s Jessica Harper (both pictured above), who spends the film terrorized by stalkers in her isolated home.
While he continued to work through the 1980s, genre material was in short supply; 1981 brought a TV remake of the Hitchcock classic Dial M for Murder, but much of Parks’ time was occupied in recurring roles on TV dramas like The Colbys and The Equalizer.
For a short time, it looked like Parks’ skills were going to be wasted in a series of quickie exploitation films like Caged Fury and the biker horror film Nightmare Beach. But that all changed when Parks landed the recurring role of Jean Renault in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Parks’ unique acting style, combining the realism of method acting with punctuations of wide-eyed creepiness that threatened to spin into a fever pitch, was perfectly matched for the material.
Unfortunately, it was back to the exploitation thriller arena after Twin Peaks ended its run, where filmmakers who didn’t recognize Parks’ nuance and skill cast him in films like Sorceress and Death Wish V: The Face of Death.
Thankfully, Quentin Tarantino then came along. As he had done with Laurence Tierney in Reservoir Dogs and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, Tarantino gave Michael Parks a role that reminded film fans how great he could be. Small but memorable, Parks’ role as Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in From Dusk Till Dawn provided us with an instant classic monologue.
In fact, the character of McGraw would return in the Kill Bill films and both parts of the Grindhouse double feature, and Parks himself would eventually return in the From Dusk Till Dawn franchise as a new character: historical figure Ambrose Bierce in From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter.
The increased interest in Parks, thanks to his Tarantino film roles, led to a series of fun appearances as another sheriff wrapped up in supernatural trouble in 2007’s The Dead One, cameos in Argo and Django Unchained, and roles as a disturbed father in Maidenhead and the truly over-the-top Fritz Tremor in Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball.
However, it was a trilogy of horror films early in the 2010s that truly made Michael Parks a household name for horror fans, with performances so wild, honest, and painful that they cannot be forgotten. In 2011, director Kevin Smith veered away from his standard raunchy comedy roots to write and direct a disturbing horror film based loosely on the hateful rhetoric and violence of Pastor Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church. The film was Red State, and Michael Parks played minister Abin Cooper. He delivered the impossible: portraying a religious zealot and cold-blooded murderer who somehow drew in viewers with his disarming folksy charm. The sermon he delivers is a pitch-perfect matching of performer and dialogue.
Three years after Red State, Kevin Smith had an idea for another horror film about a lonely old man who captures a podcast host and begins the disturbing process of transforming him into a human walrus that he will keep as a companion. The premise of Tusk is absurd, and many of the performances tilt over into broad comedy, but Parks’ central obsessed figure is always just as emotionally real as he is unbelievable in his actions. The scene with Parks explaining what will be done to his captor is disturbing in large part due to Parks’ performance.
One of the most affecting performances of Parks’ entire career soon came in a remake of a Mexican cannibal film called We Are What We Are. Relocated to the Appalachian Mountains in America, the film was written by Jim Mickle and Nick Damici, co-writers of Stakeland and Mulberry Street and co-creators of the excellent Sundance Channel series Hap & Leonard. Parks’ open wound of a performance is a wonder to behold; as a coroner whose newest case may finally reveal the truth about his daughter’s disappearance years earlier, Parks’ Doc Barrow is quiet, driven, and deeply desperate for closure. The scene in which Barrow confronts Bill Sage’s Parker to learn the truth about his daughter’s disappearance is a masterclass in subtlety and heartbreak.
Michael Parks had a career that spanned over fifty-five years. He moved back and forth between film and television, he worked with industry luminaries like Alfred Hitchcock, Larry Cohen, Quentin Tarantino, and David Lynch, and he even played Adam in John Huston’s The Bible: In the Beginning.
There was no role he couldn’t play, and the genre community is heartbroken that we won’t get any more. Rest in peace, Michael Parks. And thanks for all those immortal monologues.
Editorials
‘Immaculate’ – A Companion Watch Guide to the Religious Horror Movie and Its Cinematic Influences
The religious horror movie Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney and directed by Michael Mohan, wears its horror influences on its sleeves. NEON’s new horror movie is now available on Digital and PVOD, making it easier to catch up with the buzzy title. If you’ve already seen Immaculate, this companion watch guide highlights horror movies to pair with it.
Sweeney stars in Immaculate as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Cecilia’s warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside gets derailed soon enough when she discovers she’s become pregnant and realizes the convent harbors disturbing secrets.
From Will Bates’ gothic score to the filming locations and even shot compositions, Immaculate owes a lot to its cinematic influences. Mohan pulls from more than just religious horror, though. While Immaculate pays tribute to the classics, the horror movie surprises for the way it leans so heavily into Italian horror and New French Extremity. Let’s dig into many of the film’s most prominent horror influences with a companion watch guide.
Warning: Immaculate spoilers ahead.
Rosemary’s Baby
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The mother of all pregnancy horror movies introduces Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), an eager-to-please housewife who’s supportive of her husband, Guy, and thrilled he landed them a spot in the coveted Bramford apartment building. Guy proposes a romantic evening, which gives way to a hallucinogenic nightmare scenario that leaves Rosemary confused and pregnant. Rosemary’s suspicions and paranoia mount as she’s gaslit by everyone around her, all attempting to distract her from her deeply abnormal pregnancy. While Cecilia follows a similar emotional journey to Rosemary, from the confusion over her baby’s conception to being gaslit by those who claim to have her best interests in mind, Immaculate inverts the iconic final frame of Rosemary’s Baby to great effect.
The Exorcist
William Friedkin’s horror classic shook audiences to their core upon release in the ’70s, largely for its shocking imagery. A grim battle over faith is waged between demon Pazuzu and priests Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow). The battleground happens to be a 12-year-old, Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), whose possessed form commits blasphemy often, including violently masturbating with a crucifix. Yet Friedkin captures the horrifying events with stunning cinematography; the emotional complexity and shot composition lend elegance to a film that counterbalances the horror. That balance between transgressive imagery and artful form permeates Immaculate as well.
Suspiria
Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, an American newcomer at a prestigious dance academy in Germany who uncovers a supernatural conspiracy amid a series of grisly murders. It’s a dance academy so disciplined in its art form that its students and faculty live their full time, spending nearly every waking hour there, including built-in meals and scheduled bedtimes. Like Suzy Bannion, Cecilia is a novitiate committed to learning her chosen trade, so much so that she travels to a foreign country to continue her training. Also, like Suzy, Cecilia quickly realizes the pristine façade of her new setting belies sinister secrets that mean her harm.
What Have You Done to Solange?
This 1972 Italian horror film follows a college professor who gets embroiled in a bizarre series of murders when his mistress, a student, witnesses one taking place. The professor starts his own investigation to discover what happened to the young woman, Solange. Sex, murder, and religion course through this Giallo’s veins, which features I Spit on Your Grave’s Camille Keaton as Solange. Immaculate director Michael Mohan revealed to The Wrap that he emulated director Massimo Dallamano’s techniques, particularly in a key scene that sees Cecilia alone in a crowded room of male superiors, all interrogating her on her immaculate status.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
In this Giallo, two sisters inherit their family’s castle that’s also cursed. When a dark-haired, red-robed woman begins killing people around them, the sisters begin to wonder if the castle’s mysterious curse has resurfaced. Director Emilio Miraglia infuses his Giallo with vibrant style, with the titular Red Queen instantly eye-catching in design. While the killer’s design and use of red no doubt played an influential role in some of Immaculate’s nightmare imagery, its biggest inspiration in Mohan’s film is its score. Immaculate pays tribute to The Red Queen Kills Seven Times through specific music cues.
The Vanishing
Rex’s life is irrevocably changed when the love of his life is abducted from a rest stop. Three years later, he begins receiving letters from his girlfriend’s abductor. Director George Sluizer infuses his simple premise with bone-chilling dread and psychological terror as the kidnapper toys with Red. It builds to a harrowing finale you won’t forget; and neither did Mohan, who cited The Vanishing as an influence on Immaculate. Likely for its surprise closing moments, but mostly for the way Sluizer filmed from inside a coffin.
The Other Hell
This nunsploitation film begins where Immaculate ends: in the catacombs of a convent that leads to an underground laboratory. The Other Hell sees a priest investigating the seemingly paranormal activity surrounding the convent as possessed nuns get violent toward others. But is this a case of the Devil or simply nuns run amok? Immaculate opts to ground its horrors in reality, where The Other Hell leans into the supernatural, but the surprise lab setting beneath the holy grounds evokes the same sense of blasphemous shock.
Inside
During Immaculate‘s freakout climax, Cecilia sets the underground lab on fire with Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) locked inside. He manages to escape, though badly burned, and chases Cecilia through the catacombs. When Father Tedeschi catches Cecilia, he attempts to cut her baby out of her womb, and the stark imagery instantly calls Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s seminal French horror movie to mind. Like Tedeschi, Inside’s La Femme (Béatrice Dalle) will stop at nothing to get the baby, badly burned and all.
Burial Ground
At first glance, this Italian zombie movie bears little resemblance to Immaculate. The plot sees an eclectic group forced to band together against a wave of undead, offering no shortage of zombie gore and wild character quirks. What connects them is the setting; both employed the Villa Parisi as a filming location. The Villa Parisi happens to be a prominent filming spot for Italian horror; also pair the new horror movie with Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood or Blood for Dracula for additional boundary-pushing horror titles shot at the Villa Parisi.
The Devils
The Devils was always intended to be incendiary. Horror, at its most depraved and sadistic, tends to make casual viewers uncomfortable. Ken Russell’s 1971 epic takes it to a whole new squeamish level with its nightmarish visuals steeped in some historical accuracy. There are the horror classics, like The Exorcist, and there are definitive transgressive horror cult classics. The Devils falls squarely in the latter, and Russell’s fearlessness in exploring taboos and wielding unholy imagery inspired Mohan’s approach to the escalating horror in Immaculate.
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