Morak - Il potere dell'occulto

With a movie called "Meatcleaver Massacre" (also known as "Hollywood Meatcleaver Massacre"), you don't expect great art or a film with Oscar nominations. In fact, you'd likely assume it is dreck...and even that's too kind for this bottom of the barrel picture.

Now, you might be tempted to think it won't be that bad. After all, it stars Christopher Lee and begins with him lecturing the audience about evil. But it turns out his speech was actually made for a different film and the production company sold it to another one. This way, Lee was acting in a movie he'd never heard of because they'd inserted him into another movie without his permission! So it's crap...but also SLEAZY crap! And, he really didn't star in any movie...just a brief lecture on evil.

Four college students brutally attack a professor and his family. The wife and kids are dead but the professor, from his coma, contacts the evil demon Morak...offering him his soul IF he allows the professor to see his revenge. What follows is about what you'd expect...gore, lousy production values, terrible acting, and lots of fake blood in this nasty little movie.

I watched this under the title of Hollywood Meatcleaver Massacre but either way you'll struggle to see an actual meat cleaver. I think that possibly one killing involved one but the picture was so dark that it was hard to tell. Vipco released this garbage as The Evil Force on VHS in the UK, I'm sure glad that I didn't waste my cash on it. A bunch of vile college kids break into the home of a professor, attack his family and leave them for dead. The Prof survives, but in a coma, from which he summons a demon called Morak to avenge the despicable deeds. Interesting idea but sadly the execution is simply awful. The script, direction, picture quality, continuity and acting are all bottom of the barrel. One miscreant is out in the desert and is killed by a plant. There are a few gory sights here but the make up is very cheap and anybody hoping for a bloody massacre will be diappointed. The film is infamous for using unauthorised clips of horror legend Christopher Lee waffling on about the occult at the beginning and end. But even that is boring, and this must be the worst movie to bear his name. I like a bad movie and actively seek them out, some are so bad that they are good. This one is just simply bad. Very, very, very bad!

Actually, Christopher Lee IS here, in a way. He is sitting at a desk and spouting some mystical hocus-pocus at the beginning and the end of the film. I was about to say "I hope he enjoyed a nice paycheck for this", but then I read the trivia section for this movie on IMDb and it seems that the exploitation of his name to fool the paying audience was not his idea and was done without his permission. Anyway, "Meat Cleaver Massacre" doesn't have enough story to support a feature-length film, and the killings are not interesting, memorable or explicit enough. As for the actors, I doubt most of them ever worked again in another film. Avoid this schlock, even if you are an avid horror fan. (*1/2)

The one and only reason why "Meatcleaver Massacre" hasn't vanished into complete obscurity and oblivion just yet is solely the fault of Christopher Lee. This living horror legend appears as the narrator at the beginning and ending of this film and afterwards attempted to initiate a lawsuit against the producers because he wasn't aware for what movie he was hired to narrate. Well, when comparing Lee's monologues to the actual content of the film, I definitely do believe he didn't have a clue about what for the footage would eventually be used for. The narrations at the beginning & end are completely irrelevant to the film's actual substance. Christopher Lee, reliable and stern-voiced as ever, compellingly proclaims wonderful stories about the strength of the soul and how it can be a foreteller of great things to come. I particularly enjoyed the parable about the soul of great knight leaving its host while he was asleep and then afterwards leading him to great undiscovered treasures. Or the cute little saga at the end, about two sorcerers engaging in a magic showdown and gradually involving the entire world. In other words, I actually enjoyed listening to Christopher Lee a lot more than I did watching the mediocre middle-section of the film. If this man would have lectured at my university, perhaps I would have attended some more of the classes. But in all honesty, the rest of the film isn't as bad as reputed to be. "Meatcleaver Massacre" – which doesn't contain any sequences with meat cleavers whatsoever – is a standard and derivative story about spiritual retribution, occult summoning and teenage hoodlums. Professor at college and expert in demonology Dr. Cantrell embarrasses one of his students, tough kid Mason Harrue, in front of his friends. The kid is obviously quite offended because he promptly recruits three of his docile friends to pay a nightly visit to the professor's house. The gang sadistically murders the professor's wife, son, daughter and dog. The dog's name was Poopers, so I guess the poor thing is better off dead. Prof. Cantrell himself survives the attack – though just barely – but has enough strength left to summon an avenging demon from his hospital bed. The demon, which remains invisible throughout in order to save budget and because probably nobody knew what it should look like, imaginatively ticks off the assailants one by one but keeps something extra special in store for Mason. "Meatcleaver Massacre" is a largely unoriginal film with several tedious moments and amateurish production values, but I've seen movies that are a lot worse. The dialogs are quite hilarious ("The professor is lying in his coma like a carrot") and the murder sequences are pretty decent (especially the head-crushed under car hood moment). All in all, this is still a much better film than "Funny Man" in which – to my recollection – Christopher Lee appeared voluntarily!

"Meatcleaver Massacre" follows a group of college students who kill their professor's entirely family (yes, you read that right) for kicks. The professor survives but is in a coma. Unfortunately, he is also an occult expert, and, from his unconscious state, he summons a Gaelic demon to dispatch them.

Infamously known for its prologue and epilogue featuring Christopher Lee as a narrator (note: this footage was actually recycled from a scrapped project and tacked on to give the film some "star power"), "Meatcleaver Massacre" is not exactly the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" rip-off its title may lead you to believe. Rather, the film plays like a psychedelic, borderline-Lovecraftian affair wrapped up in cheap '70s finishings.

The film at times feels like a TV movie from its era, though it is much bloodier. The premise itself is fairly unique, and in some ways reminded me of 1972's "Tragic Ceremony", where a group of young people bear witness to something horrible and are haunted (and killed) by an unseen force. In "Meatcleaver Massacre", however, the characters engage in a Manson Family-style crime and, despite each of their expressions of guilt (aside from the cold, nihilistic ringleader), none of them are exactly likable.

The low budget shines through here in some of the choppy editing and overwrought dialogue, but there are moments in the film that are quite elegant and scary. A sepia-toned dream sequence in the first half of the film is spectacular and ominous, as is a number of other LSD-esque visual montages. These elevated moments outweigh some of the cheaper working parts.

All in all, I found "Meatcleaver Massacre" to be a decent low-budget horror flick. It manages to combine elements of the supernatural with the slasher film (similarly to 1980's "Night of the Demon", though I think that is a far superior film) and has a handful of great visuals. Despite the cheap raw working materials, there is an artiness about the film that most will not see coming. 6/10.