Uncle Scoopy's Fun House

All comments by Johnny Moronic.

Back in the early 90s, Linda Blair came to Australia and made a couple of cheap genre flicks. They are a part of today's Australian Classics update.

Dead Sleep

(1990)

Dead Sleep is a 1990 thriller from the makers of Bloodmoon (it's been 5 years since I capped that!) where out of work nurse Maggie (Linda Blair) takes a job at a psychiatric hospital under hostile nursing head Sister Kereby (Christine Amor, naked in Bloodmoon) where a radical therapy treatment under heavy sedation is run by the respected Dr. Jonthan Heckett (Tony Bonner). One day, an annoying crusading journalist Thena Fuery (Vassy Cotsopoulos) enters the hospital with the husband of one of the patients and demands his wife's release, which occurs two days later after coming out of heavy sedation. After her trial is up, Maggie is upgraded to the night shift and working closely with the doctor in the sedation ward, which goes well despite some reservations about shocking patients during sedation. But one night, a patient who'd been supposedly doing fine dies while under sedation while the doctor is away and Maggie decides to quit her job and make a complaint about the patient's death. But, it is buried by an incompetent bureaucracy. An ex-boyfriend Hugh (Andrew Booth), who'd being angling to get back with her, is arrested on drug charges and decides to undertake therapy at Dr. Heckett's hospital instead of going to jail, but he comes out of the hospital zombie-like and ends up drowning in a lake in his parent's backyard. Maggie is now convinced that Heckett is shonky and she goes to Thena for help, who tells her of possibly 50+ deaths related to the therapy (50 deaths! Jesus, how many before someone important takes notice). Maggie decides to help Thena uncover the truth and re-enlists back as a nurse at the hospital. When the doctor finds out Maggie's motives, it's a race against time and the now psychotic doctor to not only uncover the truth, but survive.

Bizarrely off-kilter movie that attempts to mix serious drama with sleaze and never really marries it well. In fact it's the serious drama that seems off in this movie, maybe because it isn't really well done with time periods zipping by without much of a mention, could be a few months, could be a couple of hours, there's no sense as to how long anything takes. And Maggie's motives are constantly misplaced; at one time she seems very concerned, but at another she just wants to move on. The ending is pure B-grade filth, which is actually the best thing about it because Tony Bonner really lets loose, but as I said, this sort of stuff is completely out of place with the rest of the movie. Dead Sleep is not as terrible as I'd been led to believe, but it's still a poor movie with some reasonable performances.

Peta Downes film clip (collages below)

Fatal Bond

(1991)

Fatal Bond is a 1991 thriller where 'Joe Martinez' (Jerome Ehlers), not his real name, who after escaping the clutches of the police, walks into a bar and sees a birthday party, buys the birthday girl a drink and then punches out her boyfriend when he objects. Leonie (Linda Blair), who is at the party, sees this an promptly leaves with Joe, has sex with him and before you know it, is joining him going up north for work. But Joe, when he's not evading capture by the police, likes the women and at their first stop, spies a pretty young girl (the very cute Penny Pederson) and arranges to meet her that night, which he does. But, the next morning, her dead body is found, but by now he has left town. When Leonie sees the next day's newspaper with the girl's death on the front page, she shows it to him for his reaction, but he doesn't even care. Could he be the killer? All signs point to him and the dead girl's boyfriend (Ross Newton, Bobby's husband on Home and Away) has an alibi. When he hyper-religious father (Stephen Leeder) finds a photo of Joe, he's convinced he has his daughter's killer and promises an 'eye for an eye' as he goes off looking for him with his son Shane (Teo Gebert) not far behind. Meanwhile, Joe is at his old friend's Rocky (Donal Gibson, Mel's brother) who gets him work stealing cars for his chop shop so that his crazy-arse mechanic Claw ('Aussie' Joe Bugner) can rebirth them. Also, Leonie is becoming more weary of Joe (geez, really!) when another dead body is found close by and she tries to cover it up, poorly. Claw eventually gets weary of Joe and Rocky and they find this out when the actual Joe, brother of the fake Joe, is found dead and Claw comes with vengeance. But, the hyper-religious father is now in town and after giving Leonie a life back to her place, notices Joe's car and know he is now close. But the police are also gaining...

Holy shit, this is a clusterfuck of a movie. I would go as far as to say it's one of the most bonkers stories I've ever seen, but the more I think about it, the more I think it may have been meant to be this ridiculous. How else can you explain a character who always carries around a bible and cross? Is he hunting vampires on the side? Joe and Leonie's relationship is completely laughable, it only seems to make sense when they fuck. The ending is even more ridiculous than Dead Sleep and the killer makes zero sense. And if that's the case, who killed the second girl? I know Phillip Avalon movies are usually pretty low rent, but I quite liked Summer City, his first movie, but it's sequel is utterly appalling. I don't know what to make of Fatal Bond. A part of me wants to call it one of the worst movies ever made in Australia, but I was never bored watching it because it's completely bonkers. It makes no sense, but Jerome Ehlers, who tragically died last year, is actually quite good and plays 'Joe' as the right way. Linda Blair gets naked, nothing to complain about there. And how can you admonish a movie where 'Aussie' Joe Bugner goes apeshit and tears the place apart. And that scene where he rebirths the car Formula One style is hilarious. Fatal Bond is totally shit, but...

Linda Blair vhs film clip (collages below)

As with all Australian Classics, the quality of the source material may not be the greatest because of its availability. Dead Sleep is from the US NTSC DVD, which is not bad I guess, but it'll never be released in Australia, so it'll do. Fatal Bond is from a VHS copy and I gotta say one of the better VHS copies I've capped from. It's almost DVD quality which is great as it's another movie that will never get a DVD release here. Also, I could've sworn I saw half of Dead Sleep during its possibly only TV showing after midnight on Channel 10 in the mid-90s and it had a group shower scene in it, but it isn't on the copy I watched. I remember Tony Bonner unbuttoning Peta Downes shirt to reveal her breasts vividly and this shower scene, but it's not there. Must've mixed it up with some other movie. Also, I'd love to see more from that cutie Penny Pederson from Fatal Bond, but her resume is very brief, mostly TV guest roles I've skipped over with nothing memorable, but she was in Floating Life, which I remember watching on SBS back in the day, might be worth seeking out.)

Tuesday

TV Recap

Naked on Stage

Stay current

"DaVinci's Demons"

Wild Things: Foursome

Night of the Running Man

Dead Sleep

Fatal Bond

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