The Strangeness

Years ago, when I was watching the 2AM Late Show this movie came on and somehow gripped with a haunting interest. I was never more fascinated. While the characters are stereotyped (the company man looking for keep his gold, the young expedition scout, the old timer with the tales of a haunted mine and "It lives" warnings, the writer, and the girl, as well as a few other extra victims) the creature is real original. Looking like something from a Lovecraft tale, this tentacled stop motion monster was around when the Indians had the land before white men found the Golden Spike Mine and died by it's hands 100 years before. After all this time, our heroes decide to enter the mine on a company inspection and are greeted by the creature. The movie is a cross between "Alien" and "The Boogens", the latter being the closest and being released within a year or so. But this one is better. The victims run through old mine tunnels, find skeletons and bodies, living victims glued to the roofs of the mine chambers, assault each other, find remains of the miners who died in the mine, hear a strange "hellwinds" and find the dwelling of the beast and end it all with an old stack of gunpowder, blasting caps and flares. The filming is dark, sometimes a strain to see what is going on, and slow, but when the creature shows up (having been hidden or glimpsed in areas of the picture) it is interesting to see this stop motion marvel eat the company man and chase the last two survivors in it's lair.

While there have been several bootleg VHS and DVD versions of this horror film, the real Trans World oversized clamshell packaging was my most prized and collectable item. CODE RED has FINALLY done an official overdue DVD release and we can hope to be treated with as much bonus behind the scenes material as has survived from 1985. Based on the official website at thestrangeness.net from one of the actors/crew it looks like we have it. Take a peek. They have the miniature mine sets, the stop motion models and behind the scenes shooting, plus more.

At print, VHS copies were going anywhere from $35-70 dollars. That is how rare this gem has been over the years. It took me almost 10 years and an email to Fred Olen Ray, the famous B-movie Retromedia mogul, to kindly respond and finally give me the title so it could be located. I bought my VHS copies off of Amazon due to tape wear before the DVD-R transfer revolution. So now we have the official DVD. No horror fan of classic 80s obscure horror would go without seeing this marvel at least three times.

Thank you Code Red for making it possible for a little horror flick like this to be placed onto dvd! It's time to get rid of that big clamshell vhs box once again. Alot of folks compare this flick to 'The Boogens', another forgotten creature flick, and I can kinda see why. But this creature in 'The Strangeness' is creepier, in my opinion. It's a simple story; it's about a group of people wanting to explore a cave that has been considered cursed, says the locals. You see, miners have died in that cave and it's a mystery in what caused their deaths! Indians for years have been saying the cave is inhabited by a ancient being and that no one should enter "Golden Spike", name of the cave. Will these new explorers make it out alive!? You'll just have to see for yourself! The special effects are practical but you go into watching a horror flick like this just to enjoy how simple it is, and that you love creature flicks no matter how dated they are compared to todays standards. Warning!...this flick is a little slow moving.

I really like this film and I'm thrilled to see it coming out on DVD. It's about some engineers investigating a cave being preyed on by this awesome tentacle monster. It's certainly some strangeness. The vibe of the film is pretty eerie even though it's a cheesy 80s horror film. The cave settings are always dark and the viewer, like the characters, can't see everything that's going on in the tiny passage ways. This would make a great double or triple feature with any of the other cave/mine-themed horror movies like The Boogens, The Descent, My Bloody Valentine, etc. The VHS picture quality on my personal copy is atrocious, so I can't wait to see a digital version of this film.