THE GORGON
If she doesn't get you hard, nothing will
It's been a LONG time since I've seen a videotape recorded in LP mode. There are two different box covers for this one - one, a cheesy photo of the titular snakehead from the film, and two, a cheesy (but cool) cartoonish drawing of her. I don't know which is better - the latter builds up a better anticipation of what the she-beast looks like, but the former, like in the otherwise excellent The Night Flier, prepares the viewer for just how disappointing the visage of the villain is.
People are turning to stone, and with Peter Cushing on the scene (and, with thirty minutes to go, Christopher Lee as well), you'd better believe we're gonna figure out why...as if the title didn't give it away. This is an all right movie overall, with some serious handicaps. What I liked most was the art direction (great sets, great atmosphere), the performers, and some really creepy moments like when one unlucky bastard, undergoing the slow process of being, uh, "gorgonized" (that is, petrified), takes the time to write down his last words.
Chief amongst its problems is the gorgon itself. I've got three problems with her alone: -her name's Magdar or something like that. References are made to the three gorgon sisters, which they name as Medusa, this one, and somebody else...but come on, the three gorgon sisters were named Medusa, Eurayle, and Stheno. (well, I think it's Stheno. Shit, I just read this again two days ago somewhere, and I've known this since I was a kid. Dammit, I need a written source!)
And what the hell's she doing with a big mirror in her house? I mean...that just goes against everything gorgon. At least, if she didn't have a mirror, she'd have an excuse for looking so lame. She looks like a drag queen on a bad hair day, and the snakes in her hair just kind of sit there and face forward with their tongues hanging out. I dunno, maybe Clash Of The Titans spoiled me. But this is one lame gorgon. Any director's going to have a big challenge in visually representing a beast that turns all the characters- yet obviously not the audience - to stone, and this challenge has been met very poorly.
Still, it's overall a fair film, and it's a little odd for me to see Cushing with hair (although not as odd as that goofy hairdo Lee's got in this one).