Le jour du massacre

Bloody Wednesday treads some of the territory I value the most in cinema, the mind in disarray, its structure embodied in architecture, the pressures within and without. It also as a social agenda, which matters less to me as a viewer but does have the advantage of being something I agree rather strongly with. It is perhaps unfortunate that it announces itself so boldly with the title and opening text, telling instantly that this is less cinema of exploration than cinema as arrow, clean flight from singing bow to grisly target, but its a well mounted and weird enough affair to mostly forgive its shortcomings. The tale is of Harry Curtis, divorced, perpetual loser, who wigs out one afternoon and loses his job as a mechanic, then rocks up to a church service in the buff and is sent for psychiatric evaluation for his efforts. But even though the doctor has her suspicions, he can't stay and ends up living in an abandoned hotel. Then slowly but surely, things get out of control... The key reference point is The Shining, hotel of grand spaces and dark corridors, menacing history and beguiling phantasms a mirror for the mind, a place to get lost and overwhelmed. But instead of gorgeous decor and Steadicam shots there's a talking teddy bear. And snakes, and ghosts that map to Curtis and his frustrations rather directly, and a street gang who turn up to make his life even harder. Its a curious and somewhat derivative brew with an ending inspired by a real life massacre of a few years previous, but generally decent writing pulls it off in engaging fashion. Characters are nicely defined and there are some interesting and quirky lines it has a writerly feel to it rather than the rather flat point a to point b no fuss no muss approach that may such films take. This is probably due to being written by Philip Yordan, who scored a Oscar win in the 50's and a couple more nominations, and though relegated to the realms of low budget horror by the 80's clearly figured he should still take his best shot at every project. Some of the performances help, Raymond Emendorf has a good blank melancholy that steadily grows to creepy intensity, Pamela Baker concerned and likable as his doctor, and Jeff O'Haco bes as the lead street tough, arrogant and venomous but smart in his way. Other performances are weaker, but it doesn't matter too much, the film moves nicely and delivers when it comes to the crunch, an appropriately bloody showdown with decent body-count. Altogether this isn't a film to set anyones life alight, but its good fun in its little way and a thoroughly agreeable late night time filler. Strong 6/10.

So reads the tagline for this bizarre thriller, scripted and produced by Academy Award winner Philip Yordan. Raymond Elmendorf stars as Harry, a mechanic who is slowly losing touch with reality. After showing up at church naked, Harry is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Although deemed a danger to society, he is quickly released due to the overcrowding and moves into a large abandoned hotel. Once inside, Harry suffers torment from figures both real (local street thugs) and imaginary (the hotel's dead occupants). All of this leads him to his breaking point so he decks himself out with firepower and heads to a local diner.

No doubt inspired by the 1984 McDonald's massacre in California by James Huberty, BLOODY Wednesday attempts to offer the reasons lurking behind random killing sprees. Unfortunately, it falls back on a series of cinematic psychological clichés, happy to portray Harry as an unprovoked nut/loner who has frequent dialogues with ghosts and his teddy bear (!). Harry may be a Vietnam vet (several moments of war sounds on the soundtrack allude to this), but it is never made clear. The film also offers some criticism of the mental health industry and the police but little time or attention is given to either.

The most interesting aspect of BLOODY Wednesday is the alternating between real life and Harry's dream world. One is never quite sure what is happening to Harry is genuine or his imagination. Regrettably, the film lacks the budget, actors and direction to pull this off. Lead Raymond Elmendorf is passable as the tormented Harry, with the rest of the cast being made up of unknowns. The best performance is by Jeff O'Haco (who played one of the Libyans in BACK TO THE FUTURE) as gang leader Animal. This is director Mark G. Gilhuis' only feature (possibly a pseudonym?). Screenwriter Philip Yordan had an amazingly eclectic career, probably the only man to have won an Oscar and work on NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR.

Miles better than some of the other movies of the 1980s and 1990s Philip Yordan was responsible for, but still pretty shoddy and odd.

It starts off with a text scroll and voice-over explaining how the world isn't safe anymore, and how a bunch of people came to be killed in a coffee shop. We then see the bodies in the coffee shop. We then see the events leading up to that massacre.

Harry is a strange man working in a garage. It's unclear if he is retarded or what exactly, since his behavior from scene to scene isn't entirely consistent. He's taken a car engine apart neatly and completely, but he can't figure out how to put even two pieces back together again (evidently he's usually very good at it). He's fired and his brother is called to come help him. Harry later walks into a church, singing along as he walks down the center aisle, naked. He's hospitalized where he proves to be very hostile with the Doctor there, but is released for lack of space and funding.

Harry's older brother sets him up in an abandoned hotel he owns that still has electricity and plumbing. How much of what follows is real is unclear, since Harry seems to have very vivid hallucinations. Some punks who've snuck into the hotel give him trouble. Harry imagines he sees a bellhop and some of the former tenants of the hotel (shades of The Shining). He talks to his teddy bear, and hears it talking back to him (I was reminded of the boy in 1981's The Pit). He evidently has an ex-wife as well (she's in several scenes), or maybe she isn't real, I'm really not sure. He receives outpatient treatment from the Doctor who discharged him. He has some fantasies about he he can't separate from reality.

Talk about a misunderstood film! Bloody Wednesday is a movie about one mans decline into utter madness and the reasons as to why he murdered 36 people in a coffee shop one night. Written for the screen by Academy Award Winner Philip Yordan, you would think this movie would get a better wrap.

The movie circles around a man named Harry, an auto mechanic who is going through a nasty little divorce. When Harry gets fired from his job he starts really losing his mind by walking into a church completely naked singing Halleluya. He is committed to a hospital for sometime. Whe he is released his brother gives him a place to stay, a secluded rundown hotel. It is here that Harry quickly starts losing his mind as he sees ghosts, his life is threatened by street toughs, his teddy bear starts talking to him, etc etc. This all leads up to the obvious disaster at the end.

I thought this was a most enjoyable film. Originally I put this movie on to just go to sleep to, but the movie kept my interest to the very end. What makes this movie so much fun is really seeing the reactions of the people around Harry as they see him slip into insanity. This movie is no masterpiece writing as most of it is rather humorous. The basic message of the movie was well thought out though. I don't know if this was based on a true story or not, but, if it was I wouldn't rely on this movie to tell an accurate story of what happened.

Overall, an enjoyable piece of trash. Definitely worth watching again. 6/10

Bizarre film from the same guy that brought us Night Train to Terror, this movie is about a guy who is friends with a talking bear. He sees a bunch of weird stuff in a hotel (kind of like The Shining... VERY MUCH like The Shining, in fact) and then he sort of goes insane for no apparent reason. The climax of the film is the tagline to the movie, so it's no surprise that he kills almost 40 people, also for no apparent reason. Odd film that goes nowhere and is pretty much unmemorable after you get done watching it.

However, I really enjoyed myself as I watched it, and it definitely held my interest. It's not really a confusing film, and it's loaded with tons of good scenes: The main character shows up naked to church in the beginning of the movie. That scene alone is priceless. Though I liked this film, it'd be difficult to recommend it; I have no idea who else would like a film like this. You might as well check it out, but the ending has already been ruined for you.