End of Days (1999)

Dir.: Peter Hyams
Plot: Don't be daft...

Well, here comes Christmas, and with it one of my absolute favourite holiday turkeys. Near-millenium fever can surely be the only reason this thing ever got made, cashing in as it does on the apocalyptic overtones suggested by approach of the year 2000.

God, this is such a bad film. However, this was my second viewing, so I knew this fact already and yet still taped the damn thing and watched it with my younger brother from start to finish. What I'm getting at, then, is that whilst by all artistic levels (also scientific, religious and general intelligence levels) this is a pisspoor movie, I still enjoy it tremendously. Arnie actually puts in a fairly thoughtful performance at times - okay, his delivery is always going to be stiff, but he manages to produce some tears - as some kind of bereaved cop (I admit I never have paid a huge amount of attention) trying to stop the Devil from impregnating a mortal woman at the moment of the new Millenium, thus establishing his reign over Earth (stick with me here). There are even tears at one particular high-point. Good gravy.

The Intruder, aka. Shame aka. I Hate Your Guts! (1962)

Dir.: Roger Corman

Plot: A small Southern town bubbling with resentment at new racial integration laws boils over after the arrival of a smooth-talking white supremacist who stirs up a frenzy beyond his control.

I don’t know if it was the knowingly provocative subject matter, the gaudy re-titlings or the presence of William Shatner that always made me think that this was a schlocky hixploitation picture bashed out to cash in on the Civil Rights movement. I confess I expected to see at least one corrupt overweight sheriff lean back in his desk chair, shoot a mouthful of tobaccy juice into a spittoon and say “Waaall, I’d sure like to help you, boy. But you see, we folks got a way of doin’ things round here…”. However, having now seen the film (albeit a very battered print), I can confirm that Roger Corman’s The Intruder (released several times under different names in a failed attempt to break even) is by no means a trashy race-hate potboiler. On the contrary, it is a very fine, powerful drama with a documentary feel in its raw, ragged glimpses of white Southern anger.