Connect with us

Published

6 years ago

on

In Netflix’s “GLOW,“ which just premiered its second season at the tail end of June, Marc Maron plays the character Sam Sylvia, an ornery but good-hearted filmmaker who directs the women’s wrestling show “GLOW,” the show within the show. Of course, the Netflix series is loosely based on an actual women’s wrestling show from the late ’80s that was titled “GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling,” which means there is *some* truth to Netflix’s “GLOW.”

At the very least, the fictional world created by Netflix has a moderate basis in reality, and that extends to Maron’s aforementioned character, Sam Sylvia. In the show, Sylvia is presented as something of a failed filmmaker who directed a few low-budget horror films prior to entering the world of women’s wrestling, including A Wolf Knocks Once, Blood Disco and Gina the Machina; the last one is briefly glimpsed in the second season of “GLOW,” when Sylvia attends a revival screening of the exploitation horror film he directed years prior.

“I made it when I was younger,” Sylvia tells the small crowd when pressed to provide an intro to the movie. “I think there’s some good stuff in it. I don’t fucking remember.”

Of course, Gina the Machina and the other films Sam Sylvia directed in the world of “GLOW” don’t exist in our real world, nor does Sylvia, but the character was at least loosely inspired by Italian-American filmmaker Matt Cimber, who was indeed the original director of the real “GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.” According to IMDb, Cimber was with the show from the beginning and straight into 1987, credited as the director of 56 total episodes.

So, did Matt Cimber ever actually direct a horror film, like his fictional counterpart? Yes, he did. Cimber may be most known for his mid-’70s blaxploitation films The Black 6, Lady Cocoa and The Candy Tangerine Man, which have over the years been praised by both Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino, but he made his first and only stop in the horror genre in 1976, with The Witch Who Came from the Sea. Notably, the ’76 shocker was one of 72 genre films that the UK’s Department of Public Prosecutions notoriously dubbed a “Video Nasty.”

Matt Cimber and then-wife Jayne Mansfield

Looking at the lurid poster art for The Witch Who Came from the Sea, it would seem clear why it ended up on the so-called Video Nasties list, as it depicted a big-breasted, barely dressed woman triumphantly holding up a severed head in one hand and a bloody scythe in the other; the film’s poster art was “inspired” by a Frank Frazetta-drawn Vampirella comic book cover from the early ’70s, if the word “inspired” can even be used for such blatant thievery.

In any event, like many retro horror films, the attention grabbing poster art for The Witch Who Came from the Sea was highly deceptive, as was its inclusion in the Video Nasties list. In reality, Cimber’s sole horror film is hardly a gory affair so much as it is a psychological one, with its dark subject matter (combined with ample nudity) likely being the reason for its inclusion.

The Witch Who Came from the Sea centers on Molly, played by actress Millie Perkins; oddly enough, the young Perkins is a dead ringer for Alison Brie, the star of Netflix’s “GLOW.” The film documents Molly’s descent into madness, fueled by her deeply traumatizing molestation at the hands of her father as a child and culminating in a brutal series of sexually-charged murders. Molly, a waitress at the local seaside bar, is the “witch” referred to in the title, though she never picks up a scythe, cuts off anyone’s head or wraps a snake around her arm.

Hell, she’s not even a witch!

Rather than playing out like a slasher film, The Witch Who Came from the Sea more closely resembles an exploitation-style character study, using Molly’s trauma-turned-terror to delve into subject matter such as sexual harassment, child molestation and, rather surprisingly, the idolization of television stars. Molly is obsessed with television, and the majority of her (always male) victims, including two football players and the star of a shaving commercial, are almost literally hand-picked from the boob tube. The men seem perfect to her (after all, don’t all celebrities, when observed solely on a surface level?), but things always go haywire when they either turn out not to be or Molly’s tortured mind simply gets the best of her.

In the end, she always ends up covered in their blood.

A film focused on the struggles of a woman irreparably wronged through no fault of her own, The Witch Who Came from the Sea is a surprisingly potent watch today, its confrontational and at times incredibly hard to stomach storytelling essentially belied by its provocative cover art and “Video Nasties” infamy. No, it’s not at all the movie that the original poster art promised. Rather, it’s a deep, dark foray into a world where one woman, against even her own best wishes, has had enough of sleazy men and simply isn’t going to take it anymore.

Oh and did I mention Dean Cundey shot the film? Yes, *that* Dean Cundey!

The Witch Who Came from the Sea is no doubt an oddball gem, but a gem all the same. If you’re interested in checking it out, it’s available for streaming through Amazon Prime.

Related Topics:

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

Advertisement
Click to comment

Editorials

Finding Faith and Violence in ‘The Book of Eli’ 14 Years Later

Published

2 days ago

on

April 22, 2024

By

Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.

To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.

Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.

After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.

SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?

Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.

For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.

Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.

Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.

From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.

The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.

Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.

With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…

There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.

Continue Reading