By Geno McGahee
One of my favorite filmmakers is Don Dohler. His film “GALAXY INVADER” was one of the best micro-budget films of all time, featuring an alien’s dealing with rednecks. That’s a formula that cannot lose. Although Dohler has been associated mostly with sci-fi, he has dabbled in horror with BLOOD MASSACRE and the 1980 film “FIEND.”
We begin with an evil entity visiting a graveyard and raising the dead. Eric Longfellow (Don Leifert) is brought back to life and moves into a suburban community, opening a music studio and killing on a regular basis. He must kill to stay alive, absorbing the life energy from the victims. Leifert is a regular in the Dohler films and is, arguably, the best actor to be featured. His portrayal of Longellow is fantastic and creepy. He sadly passed away but he made his mark in the Dohler films without question.
Gary Kender (Richard Nelson) suspects that his neighbor, Longfellow, isn’t right and begins snooping on him. When a little kid is murdered behind Kender’s house and with Longfellow the only guy around, he believes that he must have seen something. Kender confronts Longfellow and uncovers some strange things in the Longfellow house, including a strange knife and a skull.
The movie starts off very slowly but the pace really picks up and when Kender begins investigation Longfellow, it gets very interesting. Scotty (Greg Dohler), while climbing trees and just being a kid, watches on as Longfellow kills his associate, Dennis Frye (George Stover). Stover is not the greatest actor, but he plays certain roles very well. He played JJ in GALAXY INVADER, a dopey redneck, and he played it well, and as the nerdy and wimpy Frye, he was convincing. Scotty runs to tell Kender what he saw and after seeing Longfellow in bad shape, looking like he’s aged forty years and struggling to make it into his house, he believes that he may have a fiend next door.
A final confrontation between Kender and Longfellow takes place in Longfellow’s dank basement. It leads to a great ending. Dohler really did well with this production, making a very memorable horror movie with a great concept. This would be a great movie to remake because it is so original and the story is so interesting.
When you look at the career of Dohler, it’s sort of sad to know that he never got the respect that he deserved. THE ALIEN FACTOR (1978), FIEND (1980), NIGHTBEAST (1982), THE GALAXY INVADER (1984), and BLOOD MASSACRE (1991), were all great flicks and the love of film was so evident. These films are Dohler, not the crap that was produced under Joe Ripple, using the Dohler name like VAMPIRE SISTERS. I really hope that those that have watched the crap that came out from 2001 through 2004, will give the quality work that was put out from 1978 through 1991. FIEND is a very good micro-budget horror movie and I highly recommend it.
Filmmaker Don Dohler
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10. Another Dohler classic.
