Going off the beat and path to mop up a couple of Doris films that arnt properly commercially available in reasonable quality. I decided to check out 'A Night To Dismember'. Specifically, the long throught lost 'Original Cut'. A frankly miraculous find to be honest…

The story goes that in 1978 Doris Wishman, inspired by 'Halloween', decided she wanted to turn her hand to making an out and out slasher/horror film. She managed to scrape the funding together (including a generous donation from a Chicago businessman) and shot the film through early 1979. What happened next is unclear. But depending on your sources, 60% of the footage was either destroyed by a malicious photochemical worker while processing it, or around 60% of the footage was lost in a fire. The end result was that Doris thought her original cut for 'A Night to Dismember' was lost, and so she decided to rewrite the script to utilise the remaining 40% of the footage, recast half the actors and essentially recobble the film into something new and different.

However; in 2018, the original cinematographer for the ORIGINAL cut came forward with a VHS 'workprint' copy of a pretty much finished version of the film. He claimed that 3 copies were in existence, one sat with him, one sat in Chicago and one was in Manhattan. He also alluded to a potential film print copy of the film being sent out to Europe. Though non of those claims have been substantiated.

Whichever way you cut it. Bloody Disgusting arranged to have the film digitised and put on youtube. And…I'll be honest, im so glad they did.

The films a kind of very loose anthology. Split in half following the story of 2 women linked by evil and narrated by a shifty graveyard walker.

The opening plot takes place in the 60s and follows Mary, a young woman recently released from an Asylum, who's staying with her folks and trying to get back into living a normal life. However; things take a turn for Mary when, while out walking, shes hit by a bolt of lightning. Our narrator explains that lightning has the power to create tremendous evil. And we as the audience are left to wonder from this point onwards whether what happens next is a result of 'evil lightning' or of Marys mental health issues. But essentially an evil force begins to creep into Mary's family home. People begin to go missing, and when Mary's parents fine out she's pregnant, they set up plans to put the baby up for adoption and return Mary to the Asylum…with horrifying consequences…

The second plot starts around the halfway point and is set in the present of…1979…1980…or 1981,82 or…83…Its the present and/or not too distant future basically. Mary is dead, her daughter (named Vicki) was taken into foster care by her nearest living relatives and had a horrendous upbringing, being seen as a burden to her carers, and a supernatural freak by her classmates, who are aware of her mothers past and grizzlier dealings.

As such, Vicki doesnt really have friends, and spends most of her time by her mothers grave trying to make sense of why she's been given such a cruel life. But one day, on visiting the grave, she sees a body, slowly rising from the ground, and terrifying voices fill her head. This is to be the catalyst for Vicki, who'll go down a strange and terrifying path of retribution, and inexplicable evil that will surely be…'A Night to Dismember'!

And i'll be honest, I really enjoyed this one, its not really reflective of Wishmans broader works. But I feel its the most consistent picture and vision i've seen from her up to this point.

The plot for this film being inspired by 'Halloween' is a bit of a strange one to me if im being honest, as I'd say this film has a LOT more in line with 'Carrie' than 'Halloween'…But with that being said I can see moments that would align with both in places.

The film keeps a good pace, is tonally consistent and the characters feel quite well developed giving a solid pay off and depth to them that runs the full features length. The script goes to great lengths to create a woozy and nightmare like vibe across the runtime that feels very engaging and quite supernatural.

Is it the most interesting, mindblowing plot ever? no. it's actually quite simplistic, But its how Wishman has chosen to visualise these plot elements that takes the film to the next level. In many regards the script feels like one of the more 'arty' 60's haunted house horror films…it certainly looks that way visually…But with the late 70s slasher sensibilities transplanted into the script, it takes on a bit of a life of its own.

While the script is relatively solid, its the visuals I really fell in love with on this one. a woozy and positively psychotronic experience. Wishman has created a mind melting set of visuals here that mix matte work, overlays, colour gels and stock footage to create something that feels at times like your TV may well be in the process of melting. Despite being shot on film and presented on tape, this feels like an early SOV flick. In fact, throughout; it reminded me quite heavily of movies like 'Sledgehammer' and 'Bordinghouse' and I feel that, in terms of the visuals, it really wouldnt feel out of place with those films.

The cine, for Wishman? is solid. But broadly is a tad generic. compositions are largely fine, the effect work is distinct and creative and sequences flow relatively easily. I dont think i'd say its her best work, but certainly one of her more creative offerings. mixing clear and concious choices with experimentation that borders the line between incompitency and genius.

Performance wise? as with most Wishman productions a lot of this is ADR'd which again, creates a somewhat etherial unnatural vibe to the production, only enhanced by the fact that some of the actors dont really seem used to ADR work and deliver their lines out of time and out of tone with their on set deliveries. Both Dianne and Dee Cummins are great as Mary and Vicki, able to switch between caring family members and absolutely possessed figures at the drop of a hat. They're both great! the supporting cast are cheesy as hell too, delivering mixed performances that range from 'passable' to hilariously awful, and every shade in between.

Throw in a largely electronic soundtrack that only further pushes this film into a bizarre alternate reality. And I honestly had a pretty great time with this 'original' cut. While it may not be reflective of Doris work more broadly, I think its probably one of my favourite films shes worked on. I can highly recommend it if your looking for low budget trippy, pseudo 80s VHS SOV style horror. and I really hope that one of the boutiques manages to wrangle up a bluray release of both this and the 'official' cut so that I can watch this in a quality that is deserving of its output!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-night-to-dismember-the-original-cut/