Targets.

Review #2093: Targets.

Cast: 

Tim O'Kelly (Bobby Thompson), Boris Karloff (Byron Orlok), Peter Bogdanovich (Sammy Michaels), Nancy Hsueh (Jenny), Arthur Peterson (Ed Loughlin), Monte Landis (Marshall Smith), Sandy Baron (Kip Larkin), James Brown (Robert Thompson, Sr), Mary Jackson (Charlotte Thompson), Tanya Morgan (Ilene Thompson), Gary Kent (Gas Tank Worker), and Mike Farrell (Man in Phone Booth) Directed and Produced by Peter Bogdanovich (#1000 - The Last Picture Show and #1475 - Mask)

Review: 

I would think that the best tribute one can do for horror is to showcase a film from a first-time director that got his start within the school of Roger Corman. Peter Bogdanovich was a prolific filmgoer and even had worked as a film programmer at the Museum of Modern Art after studying acting. This included a spell as a film critic before setting forth for California with his wife Polly Platt to break into the industry of film, following by example critics from France who made their mark in directing films of their own. Of all places, he happened to meet Roger Corman during a film screening (because he was asking publicists for invitations), and they made a quality connection, to the point where he got offered to be his assistant. This would change, however, when Corman needed his help with The Wild Angels (1966) to deliver uncredited rewrites to the script while directing second unit work, for which he stated that he "haven't learned as much since" when it came to those months of working on the film (he worked once more with Corman with an edit of Planeta Bur that was called Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women for mostly TV crowds). The following year would see him get his chance to direct a film, provided with one stipulation by Corman: he needed to use Boris Karloff for the film, because apparently, he owed Corman a couple of days of work for American International Pictures. Bogdanovich and Platt came up with the story for the film (he is solely credited with the screenplay, however), with the latter serving as production designer. Samuel Fuller lent advice to the script but refused to receive credit on the film, which was shot in just over three weeks. You might say this is the fitting swan song of Karloff that he deserved. It was the penultimate film he appeared in during his lifetime, with Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968) coming out in the winter prior to his death on February 2, 1969 at the age of 81. True to what one would smile with in an AIP film, footage from The Terror (1963) is utilized for the opening sequence of the film along with being shown as part of a "drive in feature" for the climax at the end of the film, while footage from The Criminal Code (1931) is also used. Undeniably, the first thing that could come to mind with the film is the shooting that occurred at the University of Texas at Austin within the observation deck of the Main Building tower. At total of eighteen people ended up dead at the hands of a man with a collection of rifles and shotguns (along with two stabbings) that shot from above before the efforts of officers such as Houston McCoy and Ramiro Martinez stopped the killer (incidentally, that day saw several Austin citizens take up weapons to try and shoot the killer from afar, but Allen Crum, a bookstore manager who had heard the shots and rerouted street traffic, was the only civilian to storm the deck). The film was shot in '67 but not released until the summer of the following year, which had tragically seen the assassinations of American political leaders just months earlier. Paramount Pictures had distributed the film, which received muted audience attention but had garnered Bogdanovich attention from studios, and his next feature came with The Last Picture Show (1971). 

The film runs at 90 minutes long, which means the buildup is considerable (roughly a third of the film is spent with scenes that mix the once begotten horror star and the modern form of horror in everyday life) in establishing the horror that comes in the modern sense of what happens with a man wrapped with using a gun on people. You know, it is that fateful moment when the killing starts may very well be the best sequence to highlight above all else. He shoots members of his family but proceeds to drag the bodies to the bed before he cleans up and leaves, with a camera shot showing the note he wrote that closes with a sentence perhaps more chilling now than ever: "I know they will get me, but there will be more killing before I die." Don't forget about the sequence that is shown minutes later after his first round of killing where he goes to buy ammunition...300 rounds of it that seems him have conversation with the store owner about shooting pigs. While being on top of a tall structure, the sniper even has time to eat and drink as if he was on a picnic. Karloff is presented as the representation of the last vestiges of the old horror before it is swept away by the modern horror, a tired old man that would rather fade away than be called a man of "camp", one who knows the days of the painted monster scaring people are washed away by the headlines or TV they see everyday (the tower killings was one thing, but seeing footage of the war abroad in Vietnam would certainly be one way to shape a person's outlook). Karloff the man and Karloff the star seem to merge here with the tone presented here as someone who knows the craft and has seen it all. It pains one to see his awkwardness at hearing the questions asked to him by kids for promotion before he is spurred to tell a scary story (complete with advising a camera decision). The story, which sees the camera move closer and closer before the reveal (an appointment with Death), is one that only Karloff can tell. The appearance of O'Kelly is one of two things he is most known for, with the other being the fact that he was passed over for the regular run of Hawaii Five-0 after he had shot the pilot episode in 1968 (in general, he stopped acting in the 1970s). The smiling act of a man who looks like the ideal family man close to his parents and wife is all the more perfect to the looming dread that comes when one sees that same man with a rifle perched upon a tall structure. His family is as normal sounding in bland generalities as he is, which makes the end result all the more frightening. One doesn't really know people beyond what they see out in the open (such as, say, a restaurant). 

A half-century since the release of the film has seen plenty of media attention shown to guns because we live in a world where one either gets pegged as being tough on guns or seeming a tool of the lobby that yearns to make it as quick or efficient to get one ASAP. To get back on topic, remember that this man we are viewing (from his pointing to his drive-by escape attempt) is never seen in the perspective of having a clear motive beyond shooting. Consider that when the Austin shooter was examined upon his death, all they found was a pecan-sized tumor to go alongside his suicide notes, which had one part involving him saying that he couldn't really understand himself these days, where "these thoughts are too much for me" (incidentally, he stated an urge to use his life insurance policy not only to pay off debts but to use the rest to donate to a mental health foundation). Undeniably, the film may fall along the line of thriller rather than horror, but it is impossible to resist a film that sees the ugliness that comes in a time that seems more gruesome than the time before it within a confrontation of past and present. Mass killings were not something that arose from the deep (I am reminded of an array of explosives set up by a man that killed over 40 people in 1927), but the coverage of such killing and the way we think about it certainly has had an impact on us as a whole. The fear of being killed lurks for those who wonder what it would mean for their loved ones, especially for one stuck by an unprovoked killer. The mad doctor or the old dark house seems like child's play, particularly since 1968 happened to also be the year that saw films such as Night of the Living Dead come out to strike upon audiences. The film is an examination of a time where the "monster beyond us" type of horror is now washing away for a horror of the "monster within us". As a swansong and a reminder of just where we are when it comes to violence, Targets is undeniably an efficient film to start any month off, October or not. 

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Next up: Curse of the Cat People.