Alan Ormsby Movies

An ex-mercenary (Tom Berenger) becomes a take-no-prisoners teacher in a drug-ridden, gang-infested Miami high school in this campy morality tale about restoring lost American virtues to the inner city. Berenger's character, Shale, has no first name, a shadowy past as a patriotic gun-for-hire, and is temporarily unemployed and living with an idealistic teacher, Jane Hetzko (Diane Verona). Jane has angered a school gang leader, Juan Lucas (Marc Anthony), by asking the principal to get him transferred after he has threatened her in the schoolyard. After Jane is kneecapped by a gang member, Shale fakes a resume and becomes a substitute teacher, Mr. Smith. He lectures his class on the lessons of Vietnam ("We were fighting Communism") while looking for a way to get revenge on Juan. When he challenges the school's tolerance for student misbehavior, Smith is fired by the slimy principal, Claude Rolle (Ernie Hudson), an ex-cop who is running for City Council and doesn't want to rock the boat. Shale stays because he cites a union rule requiring two weeks' notice. During that period, tensions escalate and eventually Shale intervenes in a gang war that degenerates into a school-destroying inferno of violence. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

In this off-beat horror outing, a band of film students decide to scare up some cash by holding a film festival celebrating horror films from the '50s. Its all great fun until they discover that the projectionist is a homicidal maniac. Gory violence ensues as audience members begin dying in horrible ways. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Michael Keaton plays a famous Chicago-based hockey player who befriends trouble-prone teenager Ajay Naidu (after Naidu's gang has tried to mug him!) He also extends the hand of friendship to Naidu's mother Maria Conchita Alonso, a friendship that blossoms into a physical relationship. Too self-centered to make a commitment to Alonso, Keaton tries to break things off, but Naidu won't let him go so easily. This seemingly frivolous situation is underscored by the more serious efforts of Alonso to make a better life for herself and her son. The comic and dramatic elements of Touch and Go never quite jell, but the winning performances of the three main characters help gloss over the film's unevenness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this loose adaptation of the 1942 horror classic of the same name, a 2001-style opening montage establishes some sort of sacrificial, mystical union between panthers and an ancient tribe of humans. Flash forward to 1980's New Orleans, where waifish Irina (Natassja Kinski) meets her older brother, Paul (Malcolm McDowell), a minister, for the first time since their animal trainer parents died and she was sent to a series of foster homes. Paul's Creole housekeeper, Female (Ruby Dee), helps Irina settle into her brother's home, but Paul himself disappears. Cut to a fleabag motel where a blasé prostitute finds an angry panther instead of a client; after mauling her, the cat is captured by police and a team of zoologists: Oliver (John Heard), Alice (Annette O'Toole), and Joe (Ed Begley Jr.). The next day Irina finds herself in the zoo where these scientists work; drawn to the newly captured panther, she befriends Oliver and takes a job in the gift shop. Shortly after the panther's violence turns deadly, it escapes, and soon Paul turns up spouting an unbelievable story about his family's were-cat heritage and his inevitable sexual union with little Irina. On the run from her dangerous brother, Irina takes refuge in a sexually frustrated romance with Oliver, afraid of what might happen if she consummates their passion. Astute viewers will notice that the zoologist characters refer to the film's panthers as leopards; "panther" is actually a generic term for any large cat, especially a black one, but Cat People's panthers are in fact leopards whose black color comes from a recessive trait known as melanism. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

This quietly compelling film explores the hardships and anxieties of high school with intelligence, sensitivity, warmth and humor. Chris Makepeace stars as a shy, bookish student who has recently moved to Chicago and begun a new school. There he finds himself the target of a group of punks led by Matt Dillon (ideally cast as the weasel-like bully), who threaten him each day to turn over his lunch money for protection...or else. When he stands up to them, he nearly loses his dental work before being saved by Ricky Lindemann (Adam Baldwin), a hulking loner rumored to have murdered his own brother. Makepeace offers the boy a job as his bodyguard, and the two become unlikely friends -- that is, until the ousted bullies find a champion of their own who challenges Lindemann. When Lindemann refuses to fight back, he disappears into reclusion, and the bullying begins anew, worse than ever. Makepeace then learns the truth about Lindemann's past: he did indeed kill his brother, but the death was an accident while the two young boys were playing with a gun, and Lindemann lives tortured by guilt as a result. Just when things seem at their worst, the bodyguard returns to face his nemesis as Makepeace and Dillon square off in the final showdown of good versus evil. The real strength of the film is its handling of the relationships between its characters, particularly between Makepeace and Baldwin, and Makepeace and his family (Martin Mull and Ruth Gordon). My Bodyguard is light but thoughtful entertainment with a Rocky theme that's suitable for the entire family. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Unlike its contemporary The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and predecessor Psycho -- both of which were very loosely based on the gruesome antics of notorious Wisconsin killer/graverobber Ed Gein, who killed, skinned, devoured or made furniture out of his many victims in the late '50s -- this gritty, disturbing and underrated production purports to be a semi-accurate account of Gein's crimes. Roberts Blossom turns in a frighteningly effective performance as Ezra Cobb, the crusty old farmer with unique decorating ideas, an intense interest in the occult, and a decidedly unhealthy attachment to his domineering mother, whose body he preserves after her death. When evenings with his stuffed mom prove less than comforting, Cobb goes into town to seek young female victims whose corpses he uses for a variety of grisly household projects. Exiled in distribution limbo for 20 years, Deranged was available only in severely-cut prints, missing much of the film's goriest footage (which featured the early work of makeup maestro Tom Savini), although a pristine uncut print briefly surfaced in the mid-'90s. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, an above average slasher/horror film, a group of amateurs decide to experiment with witchcraft with deadly results. This film has a small cult following, due to some extent to the fact that one of the lead characters is played by writer and makeup effects artist Alan Ormsby. Ormsby gives one of the three or four most obnoxious screen performances in history as Alan, the leader of a troupe of actors who try out a voodoo ritual on a corpse only to find out that it has worked on all the corpses in the graveyard. The acting is terrible and the special effects are obvious and cheap, but the film somehow manages to overcome all of this and be quite entertaining, but only for those with strong stomachs. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide