Post by ronnierocketago on Jun 20, 2009 3:34:29 GMT
SEIZURE (1974) - *1/2
I've written about this before, I do mourn the dying, if not already dead, grand tradition we cinephiles used to have called "video browsing." For you young kids, we oldtimers actually had to physically go to a video store and stroll through the catalogue, occasionally holding up by hand said VHS title to analyze the cover box. Since this was before Netflix, before IMDB, even before the Internet, you were always taking a risk with a rental, since your only knowledge at best might be Word of Mouth from your friends, a nerd magazine like Starlog, Siskel & Ebert recommending it, whatever.
Consider SEIZURE. It had such a cheesy and cheap cover: beefcake dude in front of velvet curtain, donning a bland black executioner's uniform with giant plastic axe dropping with blood, which looked like ketchup. Then I noticed this in bold red letters: Directed by Oliver Stone. Whoa whoa whoa, the Oliver Stone? I figured it was one of those imposters who had a similar name like those Bruce Lee wannabes in Bruce Li, Bryce Leigh, etc. So I figured it was actually Oliver A. Stone or Olever Dstone, and looked it up in my trusty old copy of Leonard Maltin's old Film Guide that I had bought for a buck years ago.
And well shit SEIZURE was actually directed by Oliver Stone, in fact it was his directorial debut. Mind you, this was Stone several years before he would script MIDNIGHT EXPRESS and SCARFACE, directing himself to two Best Director Oscars, and of course making other damn good movies from JFK, WALL STREET, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, NIXON and so forth. With SEIZURE, he's fresh out of Vietnam and NYC Film School, and was finishing up his script for what would become PLATOON when he got a few bucks to make SEIZURE. About that, SEIZURE actress Mary Woronov claims the project was funded by a mobster laundering his money while being investigated by the FBI. If I was Stone, and even if that story is bullshit, I would claim it to be true. Also did you know Woronov was once a member of Andy Warhol's superstars at his Factory?
Much like Francis Ford Coppola's own micro-budget horror debut DEMENTIA 13, I'm pretty confident that nobody back in 1974 having seen SEIZURE would have thought this guy was going places. It's very obscure, even within the giant tidal wave of cheap European art house exploitation horror pictures of the 1960s and 70s that flooded theatres. In fact if not for the Stone connection, nobody would or should give a shit about it.
Why? Because it sucks. Those people who mock Stone for ALEXANDER and THE HAND, should check this bad boy out. They'll be quickly humbled and gain some new perspective. Interestingly, that VHS copy I rented was the only VHS release in North America (that I'm aware of) that was put out by a distributor after Stone's success with PLATOON and WALL STREET. If the rumor is to be believed, Stone filed a lawsuit to get SEIZURE off video store shelves because he was utterly embarrassed by lackluster cherrypopper (reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick and FEAR AND DESIRE) and was successful. So if that shit is true, then I got my hands on a VHS that escaped the law. Awesome, the oppposite I would say about SEIZURE itself.
Now to be fair, SEIZURE had the shoestring budget of a porno movie. That doesn't necessarily excuse it, but it's one of those little genre entries that has the ambition and strive to want to escape its Z-picture hell, yet that's where it ultimately ends up. Ambition means shit if you can't pull it off, and Stone the kid doesn't. I remember in my NATURAL BORN KILLERS review from years back, where I slightly knocked Stone: "Subtlety is his kryptonite."[/i] And that exactly is his fatal problem here with SEIZURE. He doesn't have what it takes for this material.
Stone in spirit I assume wanted to make a macabre morality tale with horror/fantasy conventions that one would have found in the Victorian Era. We have a horror author who is suffering from horrific nightmares on the eve of a weekend party at his lodge. He had dreamed of three evil people that would terrorize his family and friends, and he promptly pen and draw these devilish tormentors. Then they come to life, and arrive to fulfill his nightmare again, but this time for real...
Again, I respect Stone's intentions here, but such supposed lofty noble archetypes are undermined when he shows us his "evil representations" from Earth's past and mythology, we get an African-American axe-wielding executioner (well that explains the cover) who looks like a reject from the original STAR TREK, a big-booby bland femme fatale Queen of Evil you would have expected from the European horror cinema of that time (except neither menacing or seductive), and...a clown dwarf. Wow some "evil" imagination we have here. On the plus side, the midget was played by former FANTASY ISLAND and THE FORBIDDEN ZONE star Herve Villechaize. Funny how here he comes off a goofy feathered ancestor of Mini-here except you know, not intentionally meant to be humorous.
Nevermind that Stone was obviously aiming for a twist shock ending that would follow the great literary tradition of the unrealiable narrator. I wouldn't be shocked if Stone had expected the audience to go "Oh wow, I didn't see that comng!" instead of "Oh wow, what bullshit!" Now if he had the sly skill to have hidden the (obvious) finale right in front of our nose like the great mystery/horror filmmakers can, maybe this thematic calculation would have payed off.
OK since I'm sure 99% of those reading this review will probably never bother to check out SEIZURE unless they're hardcore Stoneologists, here's a spoiler. Ever read that classic American short story "An Occurence at Owl Bridge" ? If so, you've seen SEIZURE basically. If you haven't read it, then google that shit. I'm trying to save you time and money here. I'm doing you a favor. Be kind.
I really hate this movie, but I won't give it the bomb score if only because I see that Stone did try here. We have way too many horror movies over the decades produced by people who don't just not bother any effort, they don't give any damn at all about the genre. All they worry about is meeting the tiny quota, and making their comfortable profit. I won't reward Stone merely for trying, but I do respect genuine effort when I see it, even when it fails.
I might even argue that in SEIZURE I see slivers and glimpses of the future film philosophy Stone would later fleshen out and mature over the decades, with obviously greater success. He goes hand-held into the chaotic vegetation of the forest on the ground (PLATOON), SEIZURES features a rapid-edited montage clip of repeated footage which mark ANY GIVEN SUNDAY and NATURAL BORN KILLERS. One of his characters is a bastard stock market-lizard 14 years before WALL STREET, and we even have some arty experimentation of his in color-tinting like JFK and NIXON.
Maybe I'm being way too harsh and negative, merely because of the quality Stone would later produce.. Not every directorial debut, even by the geninely good or great filmmakers, can be a homerun like DUEL or RESERVOIR DOGS or CITIZEN KANE. Sometimes directors are learning the ropes, managing their auteur intentions on frame, and I do give Stone some leeway on that regard. Yet watching such initial works from people that would later dominate Hollywood is real morbid curiosity for us cinephiles that we just can't help.
I get why Stone would rather bury SEIZURE and make sure nobody evers sees it, much less know of this weak product. But hey, people gotta start somewhere. Shit happens. Also this is the only movie I know of where a Dachshund gets lynched from a tree.