WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I believe I’ve spoken before about directors having trademarks, Tim Burton with his black and white stripes for example, or dropping easter eggs in their films – however some directors have a go-to actor, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, Guillermo Del Toro and Ron Pearlman. In the case of Joe Dante its Dick Miller who features in all the films below. Interestingly, Belinda Balanski appears in a few as well.
The Howling
I’m sure most of you would have worked out this was a werewolf film just from the title. However, for me – this doesn’t get ‘werewolf-y’ until there’s about 30/40mins left to the film! I’m not saying it’s a bad film, but let’s be honest it’s no American Werewolf in London or Dog Soldiers. Dick Miller only really has a cameo in this film as bookstore clerk but having already seen 3 of the other films in this article several times, I recognised his face straight away! Actually, having referenced the other two werewolf films – I will say this much, the actual transition isn’t too bad…until you get to the end and Karen ends up looking like a puppy instead of a werewolf.
Gremlins 1&2
So I probably could have written this without having to watch the films but I’m never going pass up an excuse. I’ll be honest, outside of Gizmo of course, Dick Miller’s character of Mr Futterman is actually one of my favourites even though you see him very little in both films. I’ve said it before I’m sure, that the first Gremlins film is a go-to Christmas film for me along with Nightmare Before Christmas and Die Hard but both of these films are among my favourite films in general. From the storyline, to the puppetry there’s nothing that viewers won’t love! I’ll admit, the second one may come across a little cheesy in comparison to the first – what with the appearance of Hulk Hogan and the homage to Rambo – but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.
Piranha
I actually think this film has a very similar opening to Jaws, two people decide to go skinny-dipping in the middle of the night – only this time both are killed by our titular predator because they’ve been silly enough to break into laboratory grounds. I mentioned when I watched this film previously for my Get Out of the Water article that we are masters of our own destruction – well, if Maggie doesn’t drain the pool, majority of people in this film would have survived. Speaking of Jaws, I had always remembered Dick Miller’s character of Buck Gardner as being a mayor, like that of Murray Hamilton’s Mayor Larry Vaughn, but instead he is the boss of the Summer Camp that Grogan’s daughter attends, but they have similar attitudes. The only real difference is that Dick Miller’s character isn’t in this as longer as Murray Hamilton is in Jaws. What I love about this, and I don’t think I mentioned this in the other article, is that quite a few of the deaths are seen from the piranhas’ view.
Burying the Ex
For me, this film’s plot is similar to that of The Monkey’s Paw, where wishes have a less than desired outcome. Of course, in this film one wish is made and not directly to the Satan model but it’s a similar idea. I spent the majority of the film wondering why Max hadn’t left Evelyn a LONG time ago! The special effects for this film, made in 2014, really let me down as well, especially when 3 of the 5 films in this article are from the 70s/80s and their special effects were much better! It also doesn’t feel like a horror film at any point in my opinion. I also don’t understand why it takes so long for her to resurrect as the wish was to stay together forever, so for me that would basically mean she comes back not long after being dead, not just because he got with someone else. Maybe this is supposed to be a comedy-horror but the comedy is so dry, it’s not actually funny. It takes until around 10 minutes from the end for Dick Miller’s cameo – and he really has aged!
The Hole
I’m not going to say this is his best work because it really isn’t – the stuff he did in the 80s was much better! I’ll say this much, I do like the concept as the hole in the garage working as a tool for the fear of the unknown. However, it seems the hole wasn’t their real problem, it was inside it and what was released when Dane and Lucas opened it. I was also starting to think that we weren’t going to see Dick Miller but instead of being an actual character, he has a cameo as the pizza guy – very Stan Lee! I feel like Annie is supposed to be creepy but she really isn’t (at least not as creepy as the clown doll), and I just feel like this film doesn’t really go anywhere – even with the death of Creepy Carl.
