42nd Street Cinema

Christmas Evil (1980)

2011-12-25T21:55:00.002Z

Seasons greetings, time to get festive with a yuletide slasher. My choice for this year is Lewis Jackson's Christmas Evil, also known as You Better Watch Out, which I personally believe to be a better fitting title.

Starring: Brandon Maggart, Jeffrey DeMunn, Dianne Hull, Andy Fenwick, Brian Neville and Joe Jamrog.

The idea of a 'killer Santa' verges on sheer ridiculousness, Christmas Evil, however remains somewhat serious, except for a few campy lines of dialogue, the bulk of the picture is quite a chilling tale of psychopathy and helplessness.

The story is essentially about a lonely chap named Harry Stadling (Maggart), who's completely obsessed with Christmas and the concept of Santa Claus.
As in almost all instances of slasher films, the antagonist generally suffers from one form or another of childhood trauma and Christmas Evil is certainly no exception.
In the opening minutes of the film Harry's backstory is unveiled, as we see a mother and her two sons watching Santa deliver presents to their home, unknown to the children it is really their father pretending. After they have both gone to bed, one of the two children, Harry, goes back downstairs and sees his father, still dressed up as Mr. Claus, engaging in some PG-13 romance with his mother. But, the scene is so tastefully shot that's conveyed more romantically than smutty or mentally damaging. Though, after what he has seen the young Harry retreats to his room, smashes a snow globe and deliberately cuts himself with a shard of the broken glass. Now, without being a qualified psychologist I find it questionable as to why anyone would be traumatized by such a thing.

The narrative then skips forward to a 'present day' Harry, unmarried and living alone in a small house. Incidentally, he works at Jolly Dream toy factory, where he is mocked and belittled by his colleagues, even though he holds a higher position than them. Director Lewis Jackson is wastes no time establishing Harry's mental condition, when he's shown to be scrutinizing the children of his neighborhood, before writing down the names of who's been naughty and who's been nice in specifically marked books.
As Christmas draws nearer Harry's mental state steadily declines, at first it begins quite innocently as he glues a fake white beard to his face and dons a full Santa suit. However, things become more deranged when he begins breaking into people's houses...

Christmas Evil is a bit of an oddity, it's nowhere near as strong as Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), but certainly holds a distinct charm. I believe that said charm is predicated wholly on the complexity of Harry's character. He's not a clean, glorified killer. Instead he appears to be an already disturbed individual, who's been pushed around too many times and has just 'lost it'. He makes mistakes, including one humorous scene of him attempting to fit down a chimney. I'd go as far as comparing his character somewhat to the character of William Foster, portrayed by Michael Douglas in Falling Down (1994).

Yet, towards the end of the film I found Harry garnering quite an amount of sympathy from myself, I couldn't help but root for him to get revenge against his co-worker who took advantage of him. A lot really has to be said for Brandon Maggart, as he carries most of the film on his own acting abilities. But, I feel that because of the film's slow pace and sparse killings and lack of gore, it may not appeal to newer/younger audiences.

The Sister of Ursula (1978)

2011-11-04T21:46:00.003Z

Enzo Milioni's drawn-out giallo entry, The Sister of Ursula/La sorella di Ursula.

Starring: Barbara Magnolfi, Stefania D'Amario, Vanni Materassi, Marc Porel and Anna Zinnemann.

By the late 70s the giallo had undergone numerous transformations, from the depth of Bava's Blood and Black Lace/Sei donne per l'assassino (1964) to the stylishness of Argento's Animal Trilogy (1970-1972). The giallos that followed mainly focussed on pushing the levels of sex and violence through the roof and leaving the good story telling behind. Unfortunately The Sister of Ursula belongs in that latter group.

The plot is a fairly basic setup, beautiful sisters, Dagmar (D'Amario) and Ursula (Magnolfi) are residing at an extravagant hotel while searching for their estranged mother, incidentally at the same time a mysterious killer has begun to brutally slay promiscuous men and women in and around the hotels grounds.
Perhaps the only reason this film gets any attention is due to the killers lewd choice of weaponry, as aside from that and the beautiful scenery, The Sister of Ursula is a pretty forgettable giallo title.

The acting is more or less what one would expect, in terms of style and direction, it's somewhat basic and suffers from terrible pacing issues. Unlike other giallo films, the scenes of dialogue are overly protracted, which is more of a nuisance than a hook in this instance, as The Sister of Ursula is far from a 'smart' film. Overall, when compared to similar work of that era it really struggles to hold its ground.

I suppose that in all fairness, The Sister of Ursula works well as a sleazy erotic giallo and a bit of a disappointment.

Nightmare (1981)

2011-08-08T18:24:00.005+01:00

Romano Scavolini's Nightmare. More formally known to us residing in the UK as, Nightmares In A Damaged Brain.

Starring: Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, C.J. Cooke, Mik Cribben and Scott Praetorius.

Banned upon its initial VHS release amidst the Video Nasty scandal, Nightmare has had its fair share of censorship and controversy. A distributor was sentenced to 18 months in prison after refusal to edit 1 second worth of footage. Since then, Nightmare's home video releases since have been sporadic, including a number of US VHS tapes, which do feature an uncut print in terms of violence and gore, but are missing scenes of dialogue. The film also had no legitimate DVD release aside from a pre-cut version put out in 2005, in the UK.

The other major piece of controversy surrounding Nightmare is, as I'm sure you all know by now, the involvement of Tom Savini. His name is featured on both the film's poster and credits, there are also a number of production photographs featuring him. However since, Savini has publicly denied working on the film. One would have to speculate that Savini was purely on set to serve as a consultant to effects artist, Ed French and that, Scavolini and/or his producer used Savini's name on the poster and credits as a marketing ploy in order to sell the film.

The plot in Nightmare closely follows the story of a psychopath, à la Lustig's Maniac (1980), named George Tatum (Stafford), who is discharged from a mental hospital, after supposedly being cured through a 'major breakthrough in behaviour control'.

Thrust out onto the dirty streets of downtown Manhattan, George's mental health quickly relapses, feeling from New York to Florida. He begins to stalk single mother, Susan (Smith) and her 3 children. One of whom is growing up to be a little terror himself.

One thing I particularly liked about the character of George is how distanced he is from other slasher antagonists. He's not a remorseless indestructible monster, hacking and bludgeoning his way through promiscuous teenagers. But a man, haunted by the memory of murdering his parents. We also learn that George feels remorse and a confusing sexual gratification from his murderous acts.
The correlation between sex and violence in Nightmare is strong. From the get go, the whole reason as to why George is disturbed, is from witnessing his parents engaging in mild BDSM foreplay as a child. Mistakingly believing that his father was being harmed by his mother, the young George grabs an axe from the shed, beheads his mother, before quite literally 'burying the hatchet' in his fathers head.

Scavolini wraps up Nightmare with an ambiguous ending, neatly tying up one story strand and leaving another wide open. Without spoiling the whole plot, the ending allows the viewer to speculate the future of C.J.'s character.

Scavolini's Nightmare is by no means a standout slasher film, performances are adequate and from a stylistic standpoint, it's fairly basic. That said, there are some excellent and rather vicious murder sequences.
I believe Nightmare is surrounded by something of a mythos. In a sense that, it's become more written about than actually seen. However, much like Meir Zarchi's I Spit On Your Grave (1978), it possesses a memorable and scuzzy charm that's difficult to shake off.

Rabid (1977)

2011-06-13T01:02:00.000+01:00

Taking time out from the usual Italian or American affair, it's time to head north with David Cronenberg's ambitious body horror feature, Rabid.

Starring: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver, Howard Ryshpan, Patricia Gage, Susan Roman and Roger Periard.

A young woman involved in a horrific motorcycle crash, has her wounds treated by an experimental operation at a nearby plastic surgery clinic. While the operation was a success, the patient, Rose (Chambers) is the unfortunate bearer of a gruesome side-effect. She has developed an insatiable appetite for human blood, which she syphons from a victim's body via a phallic proboscis, which extrudes through a sphinter-like hole, concealed under her armpit.

Furthermore, those whom she drains have no recollection of the event and eventually transform into rabid zombie-like fiends, whose bite spreads the disease.
Soon enough, the city of Montreal is thrown into chaos as the government and city officials fail to contain the outbreak.

Following the ' body-horror' trend firmly established with Shivers (1975), Cronenberg also delivers a rather satirical message in the first half of the film, in regard to cosmetic surgery and people's attitudes towards their appearance, mainly through humorous conversations between other patients visiting the clinic.

Cronenberg's use of sexually transmitted infection also carries over into Rabid. However, unlike the manmade 'orgy' parasites seen in Shivers, the character of Rose is effectively a vampiric monster, with her power of seduction being tool of survival and the infection being passed on is essentially by-product of her condition and out of her control.

I would consider Rabid to be a turning point in Cronenberg's career, as the production is much more ambitious and complex; dealing with large action sequences, shooting crowds and running on a small budget.

Before I mention Cronenberg again, I think it's about time Marilyn Chambers was given some praise. While her performance isn't World-class, it should be appreciated nonetheless as she certainly showed enough talent for a future career in legitimate cinema, as opposed to the hardcore pictures where she gained her notoriety.

Certainly not the best flick in Cronenberg's back catalogue, but it serves as a great example of his trademark themes and what audiences were set to recieve from a visionary director.

Satan's Wife (1979)

2011-05-20T00:41:00.003+01:00

Howdy, it's been a while. I'm returning with a supposedly 'lost' Italian horror film, Pier Carpi's Satan's Wife/Un ombra nell'ombra, an adaptation of his own novel "Un ombra nell'ombra", although the film feels much more like a cash-in of The Exorcist (1973).

Starring: Anne Heywood, Valentina Cortese, Marisa Mell, Irene Papas, Ian Bannen, Lara Wendel and John Phillip Law.

The film's narrative is essentially based upon the turbulent relationship between a mother and her rebellious teenage daughter, albeit through a Satanist/exploitation facade. Anne Heywood stars as Carlotta Rhodes, one of three women who made a pact with Satan and only now are they beginning to realize the consequences of their unholy alliance.

For me, Satan's Wife was a difficult picture to sit throug, the plot trudges on at a snail's pace with very little action or exploitative quality to garner my interest. Given the film's strong cast, aside from Anne Heywood and Lara Wendel, the rest of them are pushed into minor supporting roles. Furthermore their performances are gravely undermined by Carpi's inability to direct. Visually, Satan's Wife is dull, compared to even the disparaging works of Mattei, it's dull.

Satan's Wife is a flick I'd direct more towards genre completists than cult newbies. However, I urge everyone to check out the film's Goblin-esque score, provided by Stelvio Cipriani (The Frightened Woman/Femina ridens (1969), A Bay of Blood/Reazione a catena (1971).

Satan's Baby Doll (1982)

2011-03-26T00:54:00.000Z

Mario Bianchi's confusing tale of possession and seduction, Satan's Baby Doll/La bimba di Satana.

Starring: Jacqueline Dupré, Mariangela Giordano, Aldo Sambrell, Joe Davers, Giancarlo del Duca, Alfonso Gaita and Marina Hedman.

I'm not entirely sure what message or story Mario Bianchi was attempting to convey through Satan's Baby Doll. For the most part the film is completely nonsensical and an excuse to film as many scenes involving naked women as feasibly possible. I may need to watch this film again to fully understand what happened, as there's a lot of revenge elements thrown in for good measure.

The plot, as wafer thin as it is, appears to deal with a virginal girl named Miria (Dupré) becoming possessed by the spirit of her recently deceased mother, Maria (Hedman). Also thrown into this equivocal mess is Miria's bullying and manipulative father, Antonio (Sambrell), his mute paraplegic brother Ignazio (Davers), Sol (Giordano), Ignazio's carer/nun and last but not least there's Isidro their servant-come-religious fanatic, who spends most of his screen time attempting to exorcise the castle and Maria's corpse.

Not particularly the most enthralling sleazy Euro-horror titles drifting around, but certainly one that is full of atmosphere, style and most importantly...nudity. It quickly becomes evident to any audience that Bianchi is using any excuse to shoot a nude scene. One in particular begins with the paraplegic brother Ignazio, in his wheelchair rolling towards a partially closed door. His wheelchair stops rolling enough so he's able to clearly see through the gap in the door, he then starts eerily watching Sol undress and get into bed, before diddling herself.
Throughout the film I did begin to wonder whether Satan would crop up, sadly he never does which is actually quite misleading as the title holds almost no significance to the plot.

Satan's Baby Doll feels somewhat like a Joe D'Amato production, purely because of the film's absurdity, abhorrent incoherencies and the casts lack of talent. However, one thing I absolutely love about films such as this and any number of D'Amato's flicks is their soundtracks. In this case, Nico Catanese offers a synthy prog-rock score that makes the film wholly more tolerable.

The Beast In Space (1980)

2011-03-20T22:38:00.000Z

Alfonso Brescia's sci-fi sexploitation picture The Beast In Space/La bestia nello spazio.

Starring: Sirpa Lane, Vassili Karis, Umberto Ceriani, Venantino Venantini, Maria D'Alessandro and Claudio Undari.

The film opens with Captain Larry Madison (Karis) getting into a bar fight with smuggler, Juan (Venantini). During the fight, Juan drops a small vial, inside the vial is a rare metal known as 'Antalium'. A key ingredient in the development of powerful weapons. Juan eventually spills the beans about where he found the metal, explaining that it's from a planet located in an uncharted part of the cosmos.

Larry reports back to the star fleet with his findings and is immediately tasked leading an expedition to the mysterious planet and recovering any Antalium they can find.

The Beast In Space is an odd mix of a low budget space opera and a porn flick, in a similar fashion to Joe D'Amato's 80s horror-hardcore porn flicks. At times, the film does appear very equal to a D'Amato production, but, unlike his hardcore efforts, Brescia's film is quite well shot, predominantly the scenes of eroticism are wonderfully filmed with bi-coloured lighting. The film is shot utilizing that old soft 'Vaseline-smeared-on-lens' technique, which gives the film a dreamy quality. Unfortunately the minimal budget outshines the aforementioned praise, the costumes and set design look terribly cheap. The influence from Lucas' Star Wars (1977) gleams, with Brescia even going so far as incorporating a disastrously choreographed 'lightsaber' fight sequence into the later half of the flick and a terribly acted shootout that would have the extras of a spaghetti western cringing. The sex scenes almost feel completely out of place in comparison to the rest of the film, especially the bizarre insert of a pair of horses copulating.

Furthermore, in an obvious attempt to tether his film to the success of Walerian Borowczyk's The Beast/La bête (1975), Brescia's film also features Sirpa Lane in a starring role as the beautiful Lt. Sondra Richardson, also similar to Borowczyk's The Beast, Lane also falls foul to the carnal desires of a non-human 'beast'. Lane's lackluster performance becomes somewhat grating after the first 45 minutes especially when her co-stars performances are as equally tedious. A shame, considering her performance in D'Amato's Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals/Papaya dei Caraibi (1978).

Sadly, for me The Beast In Space was a dull affair and I can only give my recommendation to Italian sexploitation completists.

Island of Death (1975)

2011-02-28T11:40:00.000Z

Nico Mastorakis' notorious Island of Death/Ta paidia tou Diavolou.

Shot on the Greek island of Mykonos, Island of Death is the only Greek-lensed flick on the infamous Video Nasty list. The list itself, is predominantly comprised of Italian, Spanish and American produced films, that feature copious amounts of violence, gore and sexual content. However, as the various police constabularies throughout Great Britain continued their witch hunt for alleged nasties, films were often being seized because of their title and/or box art. Most famously being copies of the Dolly Parton, musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982).

This arbitrary selection process led to a number of poorly produced shot-on-video, independent films, as well as professionally produced and commercially viable features, being subsequently prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act and effectively banned outright in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately because of this, the list is 'padded', for use of a better word, with films that are inexcusably terrible and had they have not been caught up in the furore, would be entirely forgotten about. A prime example of this shot-on-video trite would be James Bryan's Don't Go In the Woods (1981), a film that is in fact no more bloodier or explicit in its depiction of violence than Sean S. Cunningham's hugely successful Friday the 13th (1980). Yet, it ended up sharing a spot with some true nasties, such as; Ruggero Deodatos' Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and the film I will now finally begin to talk about, Island of Death.

Starring Robert Behling as Christopher, an avid photographer who is vacationing on the Greek island, Mykonos with his girlfriend Celia (Jane Lyle). This innocent setup undergoes a dramatic tonal change, once Christopher takes it upon himself to phone his mother who's living in London, while having sex with Celia in the phone booth, who we later discover is actually his sister. After the bizarrely perverse act, the couple go about their punishment of the wicked by torturing and killing anyone Christopher deems perverted. Ironic, as Christopher is practically the embodiment of all things 'man' shouldn't do.

Upon waking up the morning after they arrive on the island, Chris chases down a goat, sodomizes it only before slitting it's throat. After a short while it becomes apparent to me that, the films many abhorrent perversions are merely 'gross out' gags and that Nico Mastorakisis simply trying to create a film that really pushes the level of cinematic acceptability. It succeeds, in a sense, but by todays standards it would probably get more laughs than squeals from an audience, especially with films such as I Spit On Your Grave (1978) being remade last year.

One thing I do praise is the way in which the film is shot and edited together. As a lot of the violent sequences are filmed with a wide angle lens, exaggerating the act of violence itself and warping the narrative, which is, for the most part, realistic. Scene changes are also marked by a camera shutter sound, odd but thematically related to the character of Christopher.

Island of Death is certainly one for the exploitation fanatics and is fully earns its placement on the glorified nasty list. But let's get one thing straight, it's not the goriest or most offensive film out there. The infamous Japanese Guinea Pig/Ginī Piggu film series boast more stomach churning carnage than Mastorakis' picture.

Rats: Night of Terror (1984)

2011-02-18T20:26:00.003Z

Bruno Mattei's horrendous post-apocalyptic creature feature, Rats: Night of Terror/Ratti - Notte di terrore

Starring: Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Geretta Geretta, Massimo Vanni, Gianni Franco, Ann-Gisel Glass and Jean-Christophe Brétigniere.

Rats: Night of Terror is an example of the worst Italian trash cinema has to offer, directed by Bruno Mattei, Italy's most unimaginative director, under his usual pseudonym of Vincent Dawn. Rats, like other Italian post-apocalyptic movies, borrows from Mad Max (1979). Although more appropriate to the film's production date, Mattei is most likely to be cashing-in on Castellari's Bronx Warriors 2/Fuga dal Bronx (1983).

The film is set 225 years after the Planet's surface and the civilized World has been destroyed by nuclear bombs, the remaining population has been split into two factions. The society who live underground and those who have chosen to live on the surface, this faction are known as the scavengers. The plot centers around a group of scavengers, who arrive at a deserted town in search of food, they discover that the town is completely overrun by man-eating rats. With no escape, they must work together to try and survive a night of terror.

While Rats: Night of Terror isn't as fun as Mattei's previous schlocky zombie outing, Zombie Creeping Flesh/Virus, it still retains that 'Mattei feel', to put that 'feeling' into words it would have to be; the cheap production values clashing with great cinematography.

Unfortunately, the film fails to convey any sense of atmosphere, furthermore when an attempt is made by Mattei to build suspense or terrorize the viewer, it is immediately quashed and becomes utterly laughable, due to the indifference of the uncooperative rats, which, are haplessly tossed towards an overacting cast, who're chewing their way through a terrible script.

The repetitive use of Luigi Ceccarelli's ominous synth moans and occasional noodling effectively halts the film's pacing, in a sense that, it feels like the narrative never actually goes anywhere with any real intent, and that the cast just run around to the sounds of Ceccarelli, in a derelict building, frightening furry critters with fire.

There is a twist to the ending of Rats, which was probably put in just for the hell of it. However, I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it and if you have already, then I'm sure you'll agree with me that, it's one thing definitely worth watching the film for!

Buio Omega (1979)

2011-02-12T18:32:00.000Z

Made right off the cuff of Images in a Convent/Immagini di un convento (1979) and after his success with the never-ending Emanuelle series, starring Laura Gemser. Buio Omega/In quella casa...buio omega/Beyond The Darkness is Joe D'Amato's first straightforward entry into the horror genre.

D'Amato would later continue this short-lived spate of horror films with: Antropophagus/Anthropophagous: The Beast (1980), it's quasi-sequel Absurd/Rosso sangue (1981) and all the while shooting back-to-back the porno-horror flicks, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead/Le notti erotiche dei morti viventi (1980) and Porno Holocaust/Holocausto porno (1981).

Buio Omega at heart, is a macabre love story and an exploration into human emotion. Fundamentally dealing with the loss of a loved one, but morbidly tailored to suit the sleazy output of Italian cinema during the late 1970s and who better to be at the helm than the man who is synonymous with Italian exploitation.

Starring Kieran Canter as the eccentric orphan and taxidermist Frank Wyler, who goes a bit potty after the untimely demise of his beautiful fiancée, Anna Völkl, played by Cinzia Monreale. As far as Frank knows, Anna died from an illness in hospital, whereas the truth is a little more extraordinary. She actually fell foul to Frank's insanely jealous housekeeper Iris (Stoppi), who offed poor Anna via a voodoo doll.

Stricken with the loss of his one true love, he digs up her body and preserves it in a desperate attempt for them to be together forever. Frank's mental state begins to deteriorate completely, becoming more and more homicidal, eventually killing anyone who intrudes on his business. With Iris' help in disposing of the bodies, in one particular stomach churning scene we see Iris dismembering the body of a young woman before dropping the numerous body parts into a bathtub full of sulphuric acid. Gore is certainly something that Buio Omega doesn't shy away from.

The relationship between Frank and Iris is worth dissecting, as there is definitely a love between the two characters. Iris, is obsessed with Frank in a reverse Oedipus complex kind of way and Frank sees Iris as the mother he never had. The two engage in various sex acts, in a way that Iris provides Frank with a physical pleasure and in return she derives a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

D'Amato's work is often criticized for being boring and unevenly paced. However, as a fan of his films, the latter adds an authentic overall ambience of most of his pictures. His ability as a director is also called into question, as with most of his output there is a lot of trash to sift through, films that were ideally thrown together on a whim in an attempt at making a quick buck. With Buio Omega, you're given a fine example of his true filmmaking talent. Also featuring a great score by Italian prog-rock band Goblin, credited here as The Goblins.
Buio Omega is a nightmarish ordeal of loss, necromancy and psychosis.

The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)

2011-02-12T13:21:00.001Z

Giuliano Carnimeo's giallo, The Case of the Bloody Iris/Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?

Starring: Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, Annabella Incontrera, Paola Quattrini and Giampiero Albertini.

As I have previously mentioned, I began my exploration into Italian cinema with Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters/Zombi 2 (1979), eventually working my way through to Argento's Suspiria (1977), Tenebrae/Tenebre (1982) and Deep Red/Profondo Rosso (1975). At the time, I was very naive and largely attracted to Italian cinema by the sheer quantity of the red stuff readily shown in a wide array of titles. However, once I had seen the most well known titles, by the most prevalent directors. I started digging, as you do, through the lesser mentioned, yet still renowned giallo film titles.

I remember watching The Case of the Bloody Iris for the first time and while I was underwhelmed by the film's lacking visceral gore, my eyes were opened to something more. The cinematography. Now, I understand that I've previously mentioned 3 Argento movies and haven't commented on how beautiful they are. Well, I have to be honest with you and say, aside from the astounding use of colour, I didn't notice much else. Shameful, I know. While I would later return to the works of Argento, Fulci and Lenzi and love them for much more than just the quantity of bloodshed, I would also eventually learn to understand that The Case of the Bloody Iris is a pretty generic gialli, in terms of acting, plot and character development, however, even with that in mind it has still remained one of my personal favourites.

After a young woman is stabbed to death, in the elevator of an apartment block and the woman who discovered the body also murdered. An english model working in Italy, Jennifer (Fenech) moves into the vacant room and soon finds that she herself has become the killer's next target. It soon becomes a race against time to uncover the identity of the killer, but with so many suspects the possibilities are almost endless.

If I didn't know better I would have told you this was directed by Sergio Martino, as it possess very similar aesthetics to his early giallo features. Even including genre stalwarts Fenech and Hilton. Except, Iris is directed by Giuliano Carnimeo, who didn't spend a lot of time on the gialli scene and is credited as "Anthony Ascott" for this release.

Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, the man behind countless westerns and numerous other Fenech starring gialli, including, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh/Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh (1971), All the Colors of the Dark/Tutti i colori del buio (1972).
Gastaldi's work gradually became less about the intricacy of the plot and more centralized on a nonspecific character's sexual situations, accompanied by gratuitous on-screen violence. This is especially evident if you begin with the 1970 film, The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion/Le foto proibite di una signora per bene, a picture which contains very little acts of violence, instead it involves an intriguingly complex plot, deep characters and more red herrings than it knows what to do with. Fast forward to 1973 for Torso/I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale and we can see that Gastaldi's work has transcended more towards gratuitous sex and violence, ultimately changing what giallo films were originally renowned for and breathing fresh life into a splendid sub-genre.

Sporting an array of artfully executed murder set-pieces, usually built up by a lengthy stalking sequence. Beginning with the opening elevator murder, in which there is no dialogue however, cinematographer Stelvio Massi makes use of some great zoom shots, enough to emphasize at what point the killer gets into the elevator and effectively build tension, with the assistance of Bruno Nicolai's trippy score.

The Case of the Bloody Iris is a perfect example of how entertaining giallo films are and acts as a great jump off for those new to the sub-genre.

Ratman (1988)

2011-02-10T14:57:00.001Z

Giuliano Carnimeo's trashy and bizarre Ratman/Quella villa in fondo al parco.

Starring: David Warbeck, Janet Agren, Eva Grimaldi, Luisa Menon, Werner Pochath and Nelson de la Rosa.

I had wanted to see this oddity for a while, so when I finally got my hands on a copy, I was eager to sit down and hopefully enjoy it. Understandably so, I didn't expect it to be very good, however, after reading that Warbeck was in a lead role it only added to my building anticipation. Sadly, Ratman is so bad not even Warbeck could save it. Alongside Warbeck, the film also stars two other exploitation actors, Janet Agren, an actress who in my opinion is a wildly underrated Eurohorror 'scream queen', who can also be seen in Lenzi's Eaten Alive/Mangiati vivi! (1980) and Fulci's City of the Living Dead/Paura nella città dei morti viventi (1980). As well as the gorgeous Eva Grimaldi, previously seen in one of D'Amato's nunsploitation movies, Convent of Sinners/La monaca del peccato (1986).

The plot is wafer thin, beginning with a geneticist's narration. Explaining how he has successfully merged the sperm of a rat with the ovum of a monkey and thus, creating a hybrid of the two animals. The hybrid, nicknamed "mousey" by the scientist, is portrayed by Nelson de la Rosa, also known as Mahow. Nelson's dedication to the character "mousey" truly shines, as he appears to be the only cast member who cares about the quality of the film. Unfortunately I couldn't help feel some pity for the little fellow, who is clearly being exploited for everything he's worth and undoubtedly among a lot of audiences people would find his appearance comical, rather than creepy.

Meanwhile, a photographer and a small group of models are shooting on the island. After one of the models is killed by the ratman, police believe a maniac is on the loose. Terry (Agren), the sister of Marlis (Grimaldi), one of the models. Terry is told that her sister has been killed and she must identify the body at the morgue.

Upon landing on the island, Terry meets novelist, Fred Williams (Warbeck). He accompanies her to them morgue, where Terry discovers that the murdered girl isn't her sister. Now, with her sister missing, Terry and Fred must locate Marlis, before it's too late.

While the film does indeed contain a lot of misogynistic killings and bloodshed, it isn't actually that gory. The scripting is absolutely atrocious and the film's dubbing only serves to exacerbate it.

I still find it hard to believe that Giuliano Carnimeo ended up directing this dire piece of cinematic trash, but to quote an early line from the film, "It's true, we'll do it for the money". I think that line perfectly summarizes Ratman and the crew behind it.

Definitely one for the trash completists.

The Sinful Dwarf (1973)

2011-01-27T01:47:00.003Z

Vidal Raski's crazed Danish exploitation feature The Sinful Dwarf/Dværgen.

Starring: Torben Bille, Anne Sparrow, Tony Eades, Clara Keller and Werner Hedman.

It's time to lower the tone here at 42nd Street Cinema, which can only a good thing. I love a good grimy exploitation flick and among the slew of perverted exploitation pictures made in the 1970s, there are a select few standout titles, these are the ones that encapsulate that dirty, rotten and downright nasty essence we exploitation cinephiles seek. Films such as, Thriller: A Cruel Picture/Thriller - en grym film (1974) and The Sinful Dwarf (1973).

I was beginning to have preconceived notions after reading about the film and how it 'goes too far' with cinematic acceptability. So, when I finally sat down to watch this long lost nugget of 70s sleaze, I couldn't help but wonder if it would be overhyped and whether I should set myself up to be let down.

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's the sleaziest or most offensive movie ever made, but it's certainly safe to say The Sinful Dwarf is a winner. It's a scuzzy and powerful flick with several genuinely uncomfortable scenes.

Torben Bille portrays Olaf, the gimp legged dwarf, who lures young girls into his eccentric mother's guesthouse. Once inside the house, they are subdued with heroin, chained up in the attic and sold as sex slaves. This is all fundamentally established within a grueling pre-opening credit sequence of the movie. In which we see Olaf shambling down an empty street, carrying a teddy bear and a motorized poodle. Upon passing a young girl playing hopscotch by herself, the dwarf places the poodle on the floor. The young girl interrupts her game and appears to be entranced by the toy. As she picks it up, the dwarf takes the other end of the lead that is attached to the small toy and leads her back to his mother's house.

I think what makes the sequence even more disturbing is that it, aside from the dwarf's manipulation and eventual abduction of the girl, is when you begin to question the girl's age. As the actress is clearly in her twenties, her character's attire suggests she is of a much younger age, around that of a ten or or eleven year old. This is further exacerbated by her interest in the poodle toy and is more suggestive of her true mental age.
Olaf and the girl enter the house, he closes the door before eerily telling her that he has, "more toys upstairs". Following her up to one of the upstairs rooms, as her back is turned he hits her over the head with his cane. The weird credit sequence then ensues with motorized toys accompanied by a strange repetitive jangling sound.

The following scene depicts the dwarf disemboweling the teddy bear with a knife, in order to remove a small packet of heroin from inside. We later learn that it is supplied by a bearded fellow aptly named Santa Claus (Hedman), who owns a toy shop.

Enter the newlywed couple, Mary (Sparrow) and Peter Davis (Eades). The newlyweds are trying to find a place to live, since Peter is attempting to find his footing with television writing and Mary is a housewife, the two are practically broke. Previously turning down a place for £10 a week, they find themselves knocking on the door of Lila Lashe's (Keller) guesthouse. Peter talks to Lila, at first she informs him that there are not vacancies, but once Mary walks into shot, Lila's tune dramatically changes. Retracting her previous statement, she tells Peter that there is a room they can have for £6 a week.

It'll be a while until the couple truly understand what Lila and her dwarf son are hiding in their squalid attic. Until that point, the film is padded out with complete absurdities, such as Lila's peculiar cabaret acts, to which Olaf accompanies her on the piano and numerous scenes of 'Johns' taking advantage of the captive girls. Including a few dirty XXX close ups, which reminded me of the hardcore inserts seen in Thriller: A Cruel Picture. Purely because they're completely unnecessary and the film hardly benefits from having them.

The Sinful Dwarf is probably the scummiest exploitation picture to come out of Denmark in the 70s. The set is so decrepit and stained, that it deepens to the film's already strong grimy atmosphere. Torben Bille is perfect as the ever-grinning maniacal dwarf, especially when he finally gets his mitts on Sparrow's character Mary. I almost forgot to mention how much he resembles a compacted version of Jack Black.

If you are a fan of exploitation movies, then you need to see this!

Cannibal Apocalypse (1980)

2011-01-19T11:03:00.000Z

Antonio Margheriti's urban horror-come-cannibal film, Cannibal Apocalypse/Apocalypse domani.

Starring: John Saxon, Elizabeth Turner, Giovanni Lombardo Radice (as John Morghen), Cinzia De Carolis and Tony King.

Cannibal Apocalypse is at heart, an amalgamated cash-in on Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) and Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Margheriti's film is also an interesting mélange of the Vietnam vet movie, urbanized crime thriller and the traditional horror film. Unfortunately the final product is a little uneven and seems to flit from one plot device to another carelessly.

Cannibal Apocalypse was one of the 39 titles that cropped up on the DPP's (Director of Public Prosecutions) Video Nasty hit list. While it has subsequently released in an uncut version, the film is still cut by 2 seconds in the United Kingdom for scenes which involve a rat being set on fire.

Beginning in similar territory to Apocalypse Now, we see an attack on a Vietnamese camp by American troops, led by one Captain Norman Hopper (Saxon). From this initial sequence, the tone shifts from the Vietnam movie into cannibal country with the introduction of Giovanni Lombardo Radice's character, Charlie Bukowski, who has been imprisoned by the Vietnamese forces. Though it is unclear why, Charlie and his fellow prisoner, Tommy Thompson (King) have become cannibalistic.

The narrative then jumps forward to Atlanta, Georgia where both Bukowski and Thompson are being released from hospital. Shortly after leaving the hospital, Bukowski goes to see a war movie, during which he takes a bite out of a girl's neck who's sitting in front of him. Quickly after the cinema erupts, Bukowski makes it out of the cinema only to get into a confrontation with a group of bikers who chase him into a flea market. This segment of the film is the aforementioned 'urban crime thriller'. To be quite honest with you, this and the end scene in the sewer are my two favourite moments of the movie. The scene is a drawn-out and bloody gunfight, though don't go envisioning anything like the finale to The Big Racket/Il grande racket (1976). Eventually, Hopper arrives on the scene and coerces Bukowski into surrendering, who is subsequently arrested and returned to hospital. It's at this point in the film we learn that, the cannibalism in Cannibal Apocalypse is contagious and thus returning to the horror element.

I wish this concept of contagious cannibalism, while it is wholly similar to what is seen in most zombie films, was further explored, sadly it is quickly brushed under the proverbial rug and forgotten about.
The film culminates with Hopper, Bukowski and Thompson escaping the hospital and going on a rampage through the streets of Atlanta, after being driven into the sewers by police they end up in a gun and flamethrower battle. A scene which, with credit to Margheriti, is handled with considerable vigor and thanks to the makeup effects provided by Giannetto De Rossi, Lombardo Radice's death is impressively gruesome.

Cannibal Apocalypse is sadly a film in which the name precedes the content, if you're looking to see a violent cannibal film, look elsewhere. If you want to complete the nasties list and see a half decent action flick in the process, check this out.

The Beyond (1981)

2011-01-13T22:37:00.000Z

Probably Lucio Fulci's most widely recognized film, The Beyond/E tu vivrai nel terrore - L'aldilà or simply L'aldilà.

Starring: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale, Antoine Saint-John, Veronica Lazar, Anthony Flees, Giovanni De Nava and Al Cliver.

The Beyond is a little more than 'just a zombie movie'. It's the culmination of experienced artists, Fulci, screenwriters Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgi Mariuzzo, cinematographer Sergio Salvati and make-up artist Giannetto De Rossi, collaboratively working together to produce what is essentially, an archetypal example of Italian horror cinema.
Throughout the 1980s, the Italian film industry was predominantly producing cheaper imitations of much more successful American films. I'd go as far as saying that, Fulci's horror endeavors weren't of that ilk, aside from cash-in title changes, Fulci's films are brimming with a dark, uneasy, almost surreal atmosphere - an integral component in Fulci's repertoire. It can be found here in, The Beyond, City of the Living Dead/Paura nella città dei morti viventi (1980) and The House by the Cemetery/Quella villa accanto al cimitero (1981). They also deviate from the underlying social-commentary found in Romero's classic trilogy, instead, Fulci's work tends to deal with a traditional, gothic or mythological evil. Evidently beginning with Zombi 2 (1979) and following through into the aforementioned titles. However, unlike the raw savagery seen within Zombi 2, Fulci opts for a nightmarish oneiric World in which anything can happen. This style would later be revisited and developed further in Fulci's 1990 nunsploitation picture, Demonia.

In The Beyond, the gates of hell are unwittingly opened once again, this time following the brutal chain whipping and eventual crucifixion of an artist named Schweick, whom they believe to be a warlock, in a Louisiana hotel, in 1927. A scene that harks back to chain whipping in Fulci's early classic Don't Torture a Duckling/Non si sevizia un paperino (1972).
Following the pre-credit sequence, we jump ahead to present-day Louisiana. The plot, as thin as it is, has our protagonist Liza (MacColl) inheriting the previously mentioned and now cursed hotel. After befriending a local doctor named John and an esoteric blind woman, Emily (Monreale), who tries to warn Liza of the building's ghoulish history.
Once renovation work begins on the old hotel, a plumber named Joe (De Nava), unintentionally opens up a gateway to Hell, while digging through a basement wall.
At this point in the film's narrative, one who has already seen The Beyond must encourage others who haven't to remove all rational thoughts from your head and just begin to simply watch the succession of incoherent images and grizzly set pieces, as Fulci's exploration into the metaphysical begins.

At times, the prevalent violence almost halt the film's surreal momentum. However, when a man is stunned and knocked to the floor by an unknown force, then attacked and killed by half a dozen tarantulas which crawl out of nowhere, with no further explanation, even the ludicrously over-the-top splatter effects raise further unnecessary questions. Believe me, there will be a point you begin to question why anyone would commit such sequences to celluloid and just exactly what point they are trying to make.

Nonetheless if you love Italian cinema, you've probably seen this. If you're only just finding your feet, The Beyond is a fantastic starting point.

10 Horror Movies of 2010

2011-01-10T19:17:00.000Z

The year that everyone got 3D fever. Here, in no particular order are my picks of last year's the good, the bad and the outright atrocious. Enjoy.

10. Saw 3D
So this year we finally got the final installment of the Saw series. What began as an interesting crime thriller, similar to Fincher's Se7en (1995), quickly became the highest grossing horror film franchise, complete with 2 video games, a comic book in tow, as well as being at the forefront of the critically-coined 'Torture Porn' sub-sub-genre.
However, the film itself was in my opinion, 'just another' Saw movie. It felt like every other Saw movie, the only saving grace was the inventiveness of the various traps and the 3D - albeit scarce.

9. Frozen
Adam Green's latest flick and he's filmmaking talent has certainly matured. Beginning with Hatchet (2006), a throwback to the slasher films of the 1980s, which in turn felt more like a parody of the sub-genre, than a respectful homage. Then in 2007, Green brought Spiral to the scene, a psychological horror film that didn't rely on cheap humor, over the top violence to be an entertaining and thought provoking flick. Finally, in 2010 Green brings us Frozen. An amalgamation of survival and psychological horror films. Filled with likable characters, buddy humor and chilling sequences, Frozen was a real treat and definitely one film that's left a lasting impression on me.

8. A Nightmare on Elm Street
Now, I know I've already posted a full length review for this, but I felt it was imperative to mention it on this list. The film is nothing more than a diabolical master class in how not to remake a widely beloved cult classic. Jackie Earle Haley is essentially reprising his role as Rorschach from Watchmen (2009), only under the guise of Freddy Krueger. The film relies purely upon cheap scares through the use of loud noises, it's only saving grace is the cinematography, which does look truly stunning.

7. The Crazies
When I first heard that there was a remake of The Crazies in the pipeline, I was excited. I was excited because as much as I love Romero's original, I feel that in the right hands it could be given the update it deserves. The initial 40 minutes are great, everything is set up nicely and the cinematography looks beautiful. Then, out of nowhere things start to slip up and the film loses momentum, direction and sadly the last half of the film becomes overly predictable and most of all disappointing. But at least Timothy Olyphant is in it...right?

6. Paranormal Activity 2
I'll admit, I liked the first Paranormal Activity. It didn't blow me away completely, but I thought it was a well put together flick, considering the shoestring budget and ultimately the film was a huge success, à la The Blair Witch Project (1999). Now, the sequel unfortunately was a huge disappointment, re-using gags from the first film and eventually building up to what are absolutely laughable sequences I feel Paranormal Activity 2 fails at being a good genuine horror film on every level.

5. Cherry Tree Lane
I picked this up on a complete blind buy, little did I know about the surprise that I was in for. Running on a similar 'Hoody' culture/middle class terrorization theme as Eden Lake (2008) or the french film Ils/Them (2006), Cherry Tree Lane is essentially an in depth study into the human psyche and how people behave in certain situations. Both the protagonist's and antagonist's actions are explored and overall it works very well. However, the only downside to the film in my opinion is that it ends rather abruptly, or perhaps that's because I was enjoying watching each character so much.

4. Piranha 3D
Unfortunately I missed the theatrical run of this, I ended up watching it on DVD. So because of that I can't give a decent enough commentary on how the 3D was. That out of the way, I can begin my critique of Piranha. Which is a great 3 star movie, it excels in being a sleazily entertaining little picture chock-full of gore, babes and cameos from a host of well known to the not so well known/genre favourites. The underwater photography is gorgeous, as is the piranha's conceptual design. Those babies look vicious. Oooh spoilers.

3. [Rec] 2
This is, the film that Aliens was to Alien. The actioned-up sequel to a suspenseful horror that works. [Rec] 2 was such a joy to watch, the inventive 'picture-within-a-picture' sequences added to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the quarantined tenement. My only real critcism of this is that, some of the first person POV shots felt a little like watching someone play the 'Zombies' mode from Call of Duty: Black Ops. However, that said. Go watch [Rec] and [Rec] 2 back to back.

2. The Last Exorcism
Finally, another film that left a lasting impression on me, considerably the last chilling 10 minutes. The pseudo-documentary approach works wonders, especially with the narrative structure.
I honestly didn't think this film would live up to much, but to simplify how I feel about The Last Exorcism is that, it's this generation's Rosemary's Baby.

1. Machete
Okay, it's not a horror movie, but it belongs here. Robert Rodriguez's balls to the wall action-exploitation and what is essentially the 3rd film of 'Grindhouse'. Rodriguez also pokes a satirical finger at immigration while Danny Trejo is finally cast in a lead role that perfectly suits his physique and appearance. Machete is lovable, with all the plot holes and needless cameo roles included. It is what it is, a self-aware, over-the-top action flick.

Cyclone (1978)

2011-01-08T01:30:00.000Z

René Cardona Jr.'s insipidly ambitious disaster exploitation picture Cyclone.

Starring: Arthur Kennedy, Carroll Baker, Lionel Stander, Andrés García, Hugo Stiglitz, Mario Almada and Olga Karlatos.

After a powerful storm system knocks down an airplane from the sky into the sprawling ocean and a local fishing vessel is sunken, the survivors are forced to take shelter on a small tourist boat. Arguing and chaos ensues as the group run out of food and water, with seemingly no rescue in sight.

Cyclone is an Italian-Mexican co-production and a prime example of a director trying to accomplish too much in one feature. The combination of both boat and aeroplane catastrophe with some crude cannibalism, human-on-animal violence and animal-on-human violence thrown in for good measure sounds great on paper and perhaps in the right hands could have been a glorious cinematic experience. Instead, Cardona Jr.'s final piece is a mixed bag of purely enjoyable exploitation filmmaking hampered by terrible dubbing and an awful soundtrack that constantly repeats the same piece of music.

While the narrative is straightforward, not a lot happens once the survivors are aboard the glass bottomed cruiser. Everyone sits around staring at each other while they literally starve to death. Once a few of the weaker survivors finally snuff it, the crew consider resorting to cannibalism in an act of self preservation. An odd scene ensues, involving the lead character deliberating the ethics of anthropophagy, as if Cardona Jr. was trying to make a philosophical point. Their debate is mainly disparaged by Arthur Kennedy's character, known only as 'The Priest'. A perfect segue onto my next point, the characters. Cyclone is overpopulated by poorly developed characters, in fact, they had so little depth that to be honest, I didn't really care what happened to any of them.

However, after a long period of watching people sit around wasting away, contemplating if anything else is going to happen. Cardona Jr. pulls his finger out and with it follows a last bastion of action. Yes, as a last resort the rich girl's dog, oddly named Christmas, is slaughtered and his meat is used as bait. This sets in motion closing half of the film, in which we see sharks devour clothes and packets of blood.

Regarding the dog 'Christmas', there is an ongoing debate between me and Nigel of Italian Film Review, as to the validity of a real dog being used in the scene. Anyone, who wants to add their two cents feel free to leave a comment below.

Black Christmas (1974)

2010-12-24T00:00:00.003Z

Season's greetings. My apologies for the lack of posts here at 42nd Street Cinema, I've been somewhat busy as of late and as a result my movie watching and reviewing has been drastically affected. However, I'm back for the festive period and with it I bring the obligatory Seasonal themed horror film review. So, unsurprisingly, as it is, I've chosen to talk about Bob Clark's proto Seasonal slasher Black Christmas.

Starring: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin, John Saxon and Marian Waldman.

Along with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Mario Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve/Reazione a catena /Ecologia del delitto (1971), Bob Clark's Black Christmas is widely believed to be one of the most influential films in the initial development and pioneering of the Slasher film sub-genre. By introducing a set of plot devices that would eventually be reused over and over in countless productions; Teenage characters/protagonist, POV shots coupled with heavy breathing, a nameless killer with an unknown origin and hazy backstory. Perhaps it was unbeknown to Bob Clark at the time, that he would unwittingly create this formulaic guideline, which would quickly become the conventional method for a film of this type.

So, in the universe of Black Christmas, it's Christmas break and a houseful of sorority sisters are throwing a party in celebration. However, unbeknownst to them an uninvited guest creeps around the exterior of the house, before entering the house through an open attic window. Downstairs, Jess (Hussey), Barb (Kidder) and Phyl (Martin) are enjoying the festivities. Until they receive an obscene phone call, to which Barb begins comically retorting to the pervert's remarks only to hear calmly spoken on the other end "I'm going to kill you.". I find this line to be utterly chilling and ultimately important in the development and possible understanding of Billy's characteristics. This use of telephone terrorization would later become integral to the 1979 film, When a Stranger Calls - which oddly enough was also remade in 2006.

Within the first 10 minutes of Black Christmas, the film's atmospheric tone is quickly established and we're introduced to our main protagonist and secondaries. Opening with a static shot of a house decorated with Christmas lights, while a rendition of 'Silent Night' plays over the soundtrack, the viewer is gently eased into the narrative. Quickly cutting away to a shot of a party guest entering the said house. Clark makes no attempt at trying to delay the film's pacing, as right at the 2 minute mark we see our first POV shot.
The point of view shots are skillfully executed by Clark. Using what appears to be a wide-angle lens and a shaky 'handheld' camera, the viewer is literally seeing through the eyes of Black Christmas' psychotic antagonist, 'Billy'. Clark also goes an extra mile by adding footsteps, grunts, snorts and heavy breathing to these sequences, adding to the already distorted and warped visuals, this efficiently helps convey Billy's character (as well as his possible mental state) to the audience as his true appearance is never revealed.

Unlike contemporary slashers, Black Christmas has very little of the red stuff, instead, most of the kills are shot in a very stylish-come-gialli-esque manner or happen off-screen. Instead of relying on copious amounts of gore and depravity à la the 2006 remake, Clark's masterpiece really gets under your skin, especially with the thought of someone else living in your house, without your knowledge, hearing everything you say, possibly watching everything you do. It's this omnipresence that really makes my skin crawl. The film's soundtrack is also full of eerie organ moans and whispers that will be sure to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

So, instead of subjecting yourself to the crap on TV this time of year, why not sit down this Christmas with a copy of Bob Clark's seminal masterpiece, Black Christmas.

Entrails of a Virgin (1986)

2010-11-06T01:46:00.002Z

Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu's splattery pinku eiga, Entrails of a Virgin/Shojo no harawata.

Starring: Saeko Kizuki, Naomi Hagio, Megumi Kawashima, Osamu Tsuruoka, Daiki Katô, Hideki Takahashi and Kazuhiko Goda.

On the surface, Entrails of a Virgin is something of a bizarre mix between a straight forward splatter picture and a Japanese "pink film". But, if you scratch a little deeper and have a sick sense of humor, it could also be interpreted as a comedy.

The wafer thin plot is essentially about a group of photographers and glamour/softcore models, who go on a shoot in a forest, spend the night in an abandoned house, get stalked, killed and in some instances; penetrated by a mud-covered demon's unnaturally large penis.
The film is also padded out by boorishly shot and 'fogged' softcore scenes, as well as, lengthly 'dream-like' flashback sequences, generally involving one of the models having sex with the lead photographer. While these sequences aren't crudely shot, it's neither erotic or stimulating.

Returning to the film's horror elements, it features an onslaught of over the top slayings, including one unfortunate fellow's eyeball being popped out, after being bludgeoned over the head and a woman's guts being ripped out through her vagina. Sadly, these are few and far between.
I find the director, Komizu's analogy of this film interesting. He compares the film to that of a candy company's motto: 'One candy, twice the fun'. In as much as, you pay to see a horror film and get gratuitous sex too. I suppose one could extrapolate upon that and go as far as saying, that it's ultimately the combination of sex and violence.

Entrails of a Virgin is a great 3 star movie. It possesses an uneasy and ominous atmosphere, inhabited by host of unpleasant characters, engaging in sordid activities and while that might sound like good sleazy fun ,at times I was just left feeling cold.
Komizu's stylish method of direction and beautiful framing of each shot are definitely one of the film's strong points, as well as the use of lighting through fog on external shots, which looks sublime and really adds to the isolated atmosphere.
However, despite the film's short running time, the unattractive cast and infrequent violence, the end piece is quite difficult to sit throughout without trying to hit fast forward.

The Exterminator (1980)

2010-10-25T13:07:00.000+01:00

James Glickenhaus' fiery action-revenge flick, The Exterminator.

Starring: Christopher George, Robert Ginty, Steve James, Samantha Eggar and Dick Boccelli.

A stunning piece of '80s American action cheese. A film that oddly enough, got caught up in the Video Nasty fiasco. Though never actually placed on the infamous list, it was still one of the many titles at the time to be forcibly removed from rental shop shelves.

Like other films of the era, The Exterminator also serves as a New York period piece, often giving the viewer an insight into the seedy past, of the now bustling tourist destination.

Opening with a cacophony of explosions, we see our soon-to-be protagonist John Eastland (Ginty) being propelled through the air by one of the blasts. He is quickly helped to his feet by fellow solider and best friend, Michael Jefferson (James). Both Michael, John and a couple other U.S. soldiers are soon captured by the Viet Cong. The narrative then jumps to a Viet Cong camp, with the prisoners tied to wooden stakes. John is interrogated by the VC commander, when John refuses to talk, one of the soldiers is decapitated by the commander. Resulting in a slow motion decapitation sequence with surprisingly very little arterial spray. Shortly after this Jefferson manages to free his hands and quickly assassinates the Vietnamese soldiers.

Now, the Vietnam vets John & Michael work in a New York food warehouse. One day, a group of thugs attempt to steal beer from the said warehouse, as John confronts them he gets cornered. Michael comes to his aid, together the duo defeat the thugs, however the gang follow Michael home and after a ferocious attack, he is left paralyzed. Seeking revenge, John kidnaps one of the gang members and through interrogation he gives up where their hideout is. With the help of his trust M-16, John pays the gang a visit. Obviously enjoying his 'work', John then sets out to clean up the city. A warpath ensues, in which he takes out mobsters and other societal scum. Tasked with bringing 'The Exterminator' to justice, is a policeman named Dalton (George). Although he seems to be more interested at times bangin' a female doctor.

The Exterminator isn't a pretty picture, it's not an intentionally funny picture but ultimately it's a really enjoyable picture. Ginty's performance as the titular Exterminator is gratifying, along with various methods of dispatching his victims, who, are altogether reprehensible; a violent street gang, paedophiles and mafioso types.

Filled with explosions, over the top squib effects and breakneck car chases. If you want an alternative to Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Stallone, or even Seagal, give this a shot.

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

2010-10-18T22:33:00.001+01:00

A film I said I would never review, well I lied and with so much to talk about let's get this bit over with. Ruggero Deodato's notorious Cannibal Holocaust.

Starring: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, Luca Barbareschi (as Luca Giorgio Barbareschi), Salvatore Basile, Ricardo Fuentes and Carl Gabriel Yorke (as Gabriel Yorke).

Renowned among gorehounds and exploitation fans the world over, predominantly for it's savagely nihilistic depictions of cannibal tribes, human survival and the killing of innocent animals. It's certainly not a film intended to be seen by everyone, especially the fainthearted but, in my opinion Cannibal Holocaust is a cut above every other cannibal film produced throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Unlike his contemporaries: D'Amato and Lenzi, Deodato utilizes a unique and jarringly realistic approach to his film's narrative structure. Using what is essentially a 'film within a film' (not to forget the "Last Road to Hell" sequence, which is best saved for a separate paragraph), Deodato successfully constructs a believable split narrative running along separate timelines.

Wherein one segment, a crew of documentary filmmakers disappear whilst filming in the jungles of the Amazon. The crew is comprised of Alan Yates (Yorke), the director; Faye Daniels (Ciardi), Alan's girlriend and scriptwriter; and two cameramen, Jack Anders (Pirkanen) and Mark Tomaso (Barbareschi).

In relation to the aforementioned "Last Road to Hell" sequence, the entire segment is essentially stock footage of real-life executions of prisoners by a militant group, supposedly in Nigeria. It is an example of a 'Mondo' documentary film. According to Deodato, he included it to draw a comparison between Cannibal Holocaust and the 'Mondo' films of Gualtiero Jacopetti. In my opinion it can be interpreted as either a criticism or homage to the 'Mondo' film genre.

The other segment deals with one Harold Monroe (Kerman), a New York University anthropology Professor, who has agreed to lead an expedition in search of the missing documentarian crew. He flies to the amazon to meet his guide, Chaco (Basile). The pair, along with Chaco's assistant Miguel and a captured member of the Yacumo tribe travel deep into the green inferno in search of the missing crew. Whilst making their way through the thicket they come to a clearing, wherein they witness a female member of the Yacumo tribe being punished for adultery. After allowing the male Yacumo member to finish his ritual, they scare him off by firing warning shots into the air and follow him to another clearing. Here they negotiate the release of their hostage, in return, being taken to the Yacumo's village.

Following their arrival to the village, the group is greeted with much hostility, it soon becomes known that the 'missing' film crew caused unrest within the native's settlement.
Monroe and his companions take off once again in search of something more conclusive, regarding the missing the crew. Conclusive is certainly what they discover. After another long trek, the trio locate two warring cannibal tribes known as the Yanomamo and the Shamatari. Coming to the aid of the Yanomamo, the group are invited back to their village, however here too they are treated with suspicion. In an attempt to gain their trust, Monroe strips down and bathes in a river. A group of Yanomamo girls find his act amusing and frolic with him in the water, before leading him to a shrine made from the skeletons and equipment of the missing crew. With Monroe's fears confirmed, he returns to New York with the missing crew's canisters, he along with the Pan American Broadcast Company sit down to view what the team shot and it is only here they begin to understand the true atrocities and devastation caused by the nefarious documentarians.

Cannibal Holocaust is nothing short of a masterpiece. A convincingly realistic exploration into the heart of the Amazon, all the while remaining completely fictitious (aside from the animal killings and the previously mentioned "Last Road to Hell" vignette).
Deodato's usage of shaky camera work combined with a change in film stock gives the medium an authentic documentarian ambience.
The unsettling soundtrack provided by Riz Ortolani, is a mix of orchestral and electro/synth and serves as a melancholy undercurrent.

Definitely one to watch whether you're a gorehound or cinephile.

Night Train Murders (1975)

2010-08-08T00:57:00.079+01:00

After previously talking about Deodato's The House on the Edge of the Park (1980), I thought I would discuss another film which also uses a similar premise as Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972).
That is, Aldo Lado's Night Train Murders/The New House on the Left/L'ultimo treno della notte. Lado, already with 2 successful giallo titles under his belt: Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971), Who Saw Her Die (1972), understandably did a good job with the given source material. I don't like to use the term 'rip-off' when referring to Night Train Murders, as with the term comes the definition of a product with poor quality and that isn't how I would want to describe this film.

Starring: Flavio Bucci, Macha Méril, Gianfranco De Grassi, Laura D'Angelo, Irene Miracle, Enrico Maria Salerno and Marina Berti.

Lisa Stradi (D'Angelo) and her cousin Margaret (Miracle) are two sweet & innocent young girls, on a trip to visit family during Christmas break. Blackie (Bucci) and Curly (De Grassi) are two lowlife punks who get their kicks by stealing petty cash and generally causing a disturbance of the peace. The latter of the pairs cross paths with a well dressed woman. Who after a brief 'encounter' in the toilet with Blackie - a pivotal sequence in the development of the narrative, shows her true manipulative skills by coercing the two into brutally raping and murdering the two girls.

Lado initially creates an effectively sustained, comfortable and familiar atmosphere, which gradually becomes more taut as the narrative progresses. Let's face it, we've all caught a late train populated by a couple of unsavory looking characters and have done our best to avoid any form of interaction with them. However, within Night Train Murders, Lado takes the aforementioned scenario to a perversely dark realm, with brutally sustained terrorization and extreme consequences.

Throughout the course of the film, Lado confidently conveys subtle and not so subtle messages of both: political and social commentary. The symbolism of Macha Méril's character's veil represents a mask of respectability often associated with the middle class. Once aboard the train she lifts up the veil, revealing her deviant personality and by exploiting the 'outcast' characters: Blackie and Curly, the woman is able to enact her depraved fantasies. Lado's overt criticism of the middle class feels like a 'good idea at the time', as it never really amounts to anything substantial, so I'm not going to sit here and pretentiously quaff over it any longer.

The eventual payoff with the father's revenge upon the two criminals is satisfying and while it's no where near as graphic by today's standards it still packs a punch. The use of luridly coloured lighting, mixed diegetic and non-diegetic harmonica scoring (similar to Once Upon a Time in The West (1968)) by Morricone; coupled with the biting performances from both the protagonists and antagonists, evoke an abundance of emotional responses from the viewer. Seek it out.

The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971)

2010-08-07T10:47:00.001+01:00

The Case of the Scorpion's Tail/La coda dello scorpione was co-written with the giallo and western mastermind Ernesto Gastaldi, it's also one of Martino's stronger cinematic efforts. It marks the second collaboration with actor George Hilton and possibly casting Anita Strindberg because of her role in Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971).

Martino's sheer brilliance shines prominently in his early gialli work, beginning with The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh/Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh (1971) right through to Torso/I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale (1973). At the top of his game, his ability to create tense atmospheric scenes with an unmeasured amount of style and suspense is only rivaled by the likes of Bava, Fulci and early Argento.

Starring: George Hilton, Anita Strindberg, Alberto de Mendoza, Ida Galli (as Evelyn Stewart), Janine Reynaud, Luigi Pistilli, Tom Felleghy, Luis Barboo and Tomás Picó.

I plan to keep the synopsis vague as to avoid any potential spoilers for new viewers.

Lisa Baumer (Galli) inherits $1,000,000 when the plane her husband is traveling on explodes mid-air and his body cannot be located. However, before she can runaway with the cash and her secret lover, she's brutally murdered and the inheritance money is stolen by an unseen assailant. Now, Peter Lynch (Hilton), an insurance investigator assigned to Lisa's case and his love-interest, local journalist Cléo Dupont (Strindberg), must uncover who is killing anyone involved with the recently deceased Lisa.

Martino delivers a solidly engaging giallo with The Case of the Scorpion's Tail. There's an interesting contrast between sex and death explored predominantly in the opening sequence, wherein Lisa and her lover are knockin' boots, while the couple reach a climax it quick cuts to her husband's plane exploding. A similar theme was also explored in the opening sequence of Lars von Trier's Antichrist (2009). Sadly, the effect is poorly executed as the airplane is clearly a inadequately painting Airfix model.

There's also a scene which is very much like something you would expect from a Fulci feature, in which one unlucky man's eyeball meets the sharp end of a broken glass bottle. Speaking of bottles, the J&B product placement is as notorious as ever, with a bottle visible in most in-door scenes. Worthy of note is Bruno Nicolai's atmospheric score which compliments the stylish visuals.

The bottom line is, The Case of the Scorpion's Tail provides enough blood, beautiful women, red herrings, stunning scenery and bottles of J&B to satisfy any gialli fan. Seek this out, if you haven't already.

The Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978)

2010-08-05T00:28:00.000+01:00

The first film in Sergio Martino's "Adventure Trilogy" and a considerably classy entry into the ferocious cannibal/jungle adventure sub-genre. Once deemed a Video Nasty in the UK, though in all honesty it's tame compared to other cannibal flicks that were banned.

The Mountain of the Cannibal God/La montagna del dio cannibale was co-written by Sergio Martino and Cesare Frugoni, who would later go on to co-write Deodato's Cut and Run (1985) with Dardano Sacchetti.

Starring: Ursula Andress, Stacy Keach, Claudio Cassinelli, Antonio Marsina, Franco Fantasia, Lanfranco Spinola, Carlo Longhi and Luigina Rocchi.

The Mountain of the Cannibal God sees one Susan Stevenson (Andress) attempting to locate her missing anthropologist husband Henry, who suddenly vanished in the jungles of New Guinea. With the help of her brother Arthur (Marsina) and Professor Edward Foster (Keach), who believes that Susan's husband might have headed for the sacred mountain of Ra Ra Me. The trio fly to the island of Roka, where Ra Ra Me is situated. Upon arriving on the island they encounter another intrepid jungle explorer named Manolo (Cassinelli), who joins them in their quest for Henry.

It is then revealed that each character has their own private reasons for coming to the island. Susan and Arthur's true intentions become fully revealed: that they have secretly being trying to locate a valuable uranium deposits. Foster then reveals that he was held captive by a tribe of cannibals, known as the Puka, and that he has returned to wipe them out. Eventually the troupe make it to the top of Ra Ra Me and are captured by the Pukas. They're taken to a cave settlement where find they find the grizzly remains of Susan's husband, complete with a Geiger counter firmly embedded in his chest. It is now a question of survival and who will escape from the mountain of the cannibal God alive.

Martino's offering is often slow, boring and very disappointing. The production values are much higher compared to other films in the sub-genre and perhaps that's why I'm not so fond of this. Yet, while Martino's direction is more than capable, it lacks the rawness of Deodato's Last Cannibal World/Ultimo mondo cannibale (1977).

The film holds host to a bountiful of stunning locations and set pieces. The gruesome effects by Paolo Ricci are enough to satisfy most gorehounds, the beautiful allure of Andress is wholly welcomed and then...of course comes the pointless animal mutilations. It's definitely one for the completist of cult Italian cinema, if you're just getting into it there's more interesting cannibal capers you could be seeking out.

The House on the Edge of the Park (1980)

2010-08-04T01:11:00.002+01:00

One of, if not the nastiest of the Video Nasties, Ruggero Deodato's The House on the Edge of the Park/La casa sperduta nel parco. Considered a cash-in on Wes Craven's seminal The Last House on the Left (1972), including David Hess playing a similar role. I'm not sure if this is entirely true, as most of the Italian 'rip-off' films were made a year or two after the original. So in that case, why would Deodato wait 8 years to rip off Craven? Perhaps it was because Aldo Lado got in there first with Night Train Murders/L'ultimo treno della notte (1975), which on it's release in the USA was marketed as Last House - Part II and The New House on the Left. Whatever the reason, I'm glad Deodato made this.
Produced by Franco Di Nunzio and Franco Palaggi, who also worked as producers on Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and, written by longtime collaborators Gianfranco Clerici and Vincenczo Mannino.

Created during the boom of European exploitation films, The House on the Edge of the Park is a morally repugnant tale of rape, murder and revenge. I would like to say that, a film such as this wouldn't be made in the present time. However, with a remake of the 1978 I Spit on Your Grave on the way, it's hard to make such a sweeping statement. It became apparent that Deodato enjoyed pushing the boundaries of filmmaking; within the same year he crafted two of the most shocking films cinema had seen. Unlike other directors who choose to 'shy away' from violence through methods of either shooting or editing, Deodato leaves very little to the viewer's imagination.

Starring: David Hess, Annie Belle, Christian Borromeo, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Marie Claude Joseph, Gabriele Di Giulio, Brigitte Petronio, Karoline Mardeck and Lorraine De Selle.

The film opens with Alex (Hess) driving along a highway in New York, suddenly he forces a woman's car off the road, before raping and strangling her. Cut to, Alex finishing work at a garage, which he co-owns with Ricky (Radice), who's overly excited to go out and 'boogie'. As they're leaving the office, a decadent couple named Lisa (Belle) and Tom (Borromeo) roll in complaining of car trouble, after Ricky fixes their car for free, Alex essentially invites himself (and Ricky) to the couple's friend's house party.

Upon arriving at the party, Alex acts courteous albeit in a condescending manner. His attitude begins to slowly change, when he observes how the other guests slyly mock Ricky while he's dancing. Lisa begins intensely flirting with Alex, who tries to have sex with her only to be rejected...much to his frustration. Later, the guests invite Ricky to play a poker game, they begin to take advantage of his partial retardation and dupe him out of all his money. This incenses Alex to the point of losing his pleasant facade and showing his true psychopathic nature. He starts to beat up the male guests and sexually degrading the females, encouraging Ricky to do the same.

At the point in the film when the "Cindy" (Petronio) character is introduced, the sexual humiliation and debasement heightens. She is the only truly innocent character in the entire film who just blundered her way into a horrible scenario. Though her age is never disclosed, the shock, sadness and helplessness affixed upon each characters face speaks volumes, and the viewers guess is possibly reinforced by Alex discovering that she's a virgin. It sets an uneasy atmosphere, that almost poses a question of just how much the viewer can handle and why they are continuing to subject themselves to such extreme depravity.
The scene culminates with Hess' character Alex stripping her right down to her birthday suit and continuously slashing her arms, chest and thighs with a straight razor. The entire sequence is also made especially tough to watch by the occasional quick cut to Cindy's sweaty and teary screaming face.

Ricky attempts to persuade Alex to stop, only to be lashed out at and be severely wounded by an enraged Alex. This leads to an interesting scene in which Alex finally shows some compassion and humanity as he gets down on his knees cradling the wounded Ricky, or perhaps it's just because he wants forgiveness from his only real friend.

Eventually, the guests find a gun and without hesitation pull the trigger on Alex and with it, comes the brutal truth: the girl that Alex raped and murdered at the beginning of the film was the sister of Lisa's boyfriend, so he formulated a plan to lure him to their house and provoke him to get violent, as a means of justification for shooting him in self defense. Once Alex is shot in the genitals, he falls into the pool and is then finally finished off with a shot to the head, Ricky's life is spared and Tom and Lisa phone for the police.

The House on the Edge of the Park is a grim film with no true heroes, very few morals and an intense later half. Hess is essentially reprising Krug, which isn't a bad thing, as he plays the role so well. Radice in one of his finest roles, portraying an energetic simpleton who is either completely manipulated by Alex or just as psychotic. Belle is stunning as the seductive Lisa and is it me or does Borromeo appear older in this, compared to his role in Argento's Tenebrae/Tenebre (1982).

In closing, it's not a film for everyone, but if you're one of the few who love exploitation films, this is a must.

Eaten Alive! (1980)

2010-07-30T14:56:00.000+01:00

Returning to the jungle once again, after laying the foundations with Man from Deep River/Il paese del sesso selvaggio (1972), Umberto Lenzi brings us his second cannibal feature Eaten Alive!/Mangiati vivi!/Doomed To Die. Establishing itself as a precursor to his more notorious Cannibal Ferox (1981). Lenzi wrote the screenplay and directed, with Luciano Martino serving as producer on what would be his second cannibal outing. The plot bears a resemblance to the 1978 Jonestown Massacre.

Starring: Robert Kerman, Janet Agren, Ivan Rassimov, Paola Senatore, Me Me Lai, Fiamma Maglione (as Mag Fleming), Franco Fantasia, Franco Coduti (as Gianfranco Coduti) and Mel Ferrer.

Like many of it's predecessors (and successors), Eaten Alive! plainly characterizes the act or rather, the cultural practice of cannibalism as a strictly primitive, bordering on feral activity that is frowned upon by the 'civilized' Western World.
As far as cultural taboo goes, cannibalism still ranks high and although, the generalized belief of a 'exclusivity' to primeval tribal culture has been quashed by the likes of the Armin Meiwes case, it is a subject that has inspired some of the most provocative cinematic excursions.
However in a paradoxical sense, Eaten Alive! contains more killing and consumption of small animals than people, nonetheless they're still 'eaten alive'. It's sadly, an insensitive trait prevalently found within the cannibal/jungle adventure genre.

Opening with a series of murders beginning in Canada and ending in New York, perpetrated by a small tribal man with a blowpipe and a bad bowl haircut. After the opening credits, the narrative fully kicks in and we are introduced to Sheila (Agren), who has been contacted by the Police with information regarding her missing sister. It becomes evident that her sister Diana (Senatore) has got mixed up with an 'ecology freak' called Reverend Jonas Melvyn (Rassimov) and has subsequently disappeared.

Based on the advice given to her by one Professor Carter (Ferrer), she sets off on a journey to the savage jungles of New Guinea, where she meets Mark (Kerman), a Vietnam Vet who earns money by arm-wrestling the locals. Mark's introduction clearly owes to a scene from The Deer Hunter (1978), in which De Niro's character searches a gambling den in Saigon for Walken's character, only to find him playing Russian roulette with the locals.
After hiring Mark, the two set off into the depths of the jungle in search of Rev. Jonas' camp. Dodging cannibals and killer crocs the pair find themselves in the domain of Rev. Jonas, who has become a complete megalomaniac. He drugs Shelia and begins to indoctrinate her with his beliefs, it's is then up to Mark to save the day and rescue Shelia and her sister from the controlling Jonas.

While Lenzi's film isn't a patch on Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (1980), it does contain some truly disturbing scenes, especially in the later half of the flick. But do they make up for the banal story, haphazardly editing and continuity errors? Perhaps they do, one thing that definitely makes up for it is Kerman's performance, you can clearly tell he had a lot of fun making this.

I found that the real horror doesn't come from the gore or bloodshed, as most of the effects are amateurish. It comes from the situation the characters are placed within. Taken from the comforts of the First World and placed in the lawless jungle, surrounded by dangerous animals, ever-hungry cannibals and a cultist nutcase, the uncertainty of their fate offers an honest and nihilistic reality check. Another great example of this is Deodato's Last Cannibal World/Ultimo mondo cannibale (1977) but that's worth saving for another review.

Zombie Holocaust (1980)

2010-07-28T01:12:00.001+01:00

Marino Girolami's genre melting zombie-cannibal-crossover caper, Zombie Holocaust/Zombi Holocaust/Dr. Butcher M.D.
Yet, while the initial concept of blending two of the most popular Italian exploitation sub-genres may sound like a grizzly thrill ride, sadly the final product is a poorly executed affair, with the only real redeeming quality being the gore effects.

As an obvious attempt to cash-in on the spate of gory zombie and cannibal films, writer & producer Fabrizio De Angelis, who also served as the producer on Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979) decided to take, what is essentially the whole plot of Zombi 2 and re-write it with cannibals thrown into the mix, while clearly opting for a title close enough to Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (1980) as possible. Managing to lack both the style and production of the aforementioned films, Zombie Holocaust feels closer to a D'Amato production, not far off the titillating Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals/Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali (1977).

Starring: Ian McCulloch, Alexandra Delli Colli, Sherry Buchanan, Peter O'Neal, Donald O'Brien, Dakar and Walter Patriarca.

Marino Girolami, father to Enzo G. Castellari's father and an ex-European boxing champion, creates an absurd non-linear scenario within Zombie Holocaust. Rather than a group of 'survivors' holding off against a constant onslaught of the living dead within a fortified area, à la George A. Romero, he opts for a nonsensical narrative set on an idyllic tropical island, inhabited by a psychotic doctor who transforms people into zombies in a bizarre attempt to prolong human life and a primitive cannibal tribe. Most of the European cast are devoured by cannibals and remaining few are later attacked by random roaming zombies, only then to be captured and be on the receiving end of the crazed doctor's scalpel.

The characters involved in this ridiculous plot are no more imaginative than 2 wheels on a bicycle. McCulloch's role as a policeman/doctor (he's introduced as a policeman but his character is often referred to as Dr.), Dr. Peter Chandler. McCulloch's role is essentially a reprisal of Peter West, the investigative reporter from Zombi 2. He's approached by Lori Ridgeway, in an attempt to uncover who's behind the recent string of bodily mutilations at the morgue. Lori is portrayed by the ever-buxom Alexandra Delli Colli, who would later make an appearance in Fulci's The New York Ripper/Lo squartatore di New York (1982).

Through the understanding of a tribal insignia the two take off to the jungles of Southeast Asia in a quest to learn more. It is at this point we're introduced to Dr. Obrero who is hammed to perfection by poor man's Kurt Russell - Donald O'Brien. Dakar also shows his face as the insignificant Molotto. The rest of the characters are merely there to be gruesomely eviscerated.

Zombie Holocaust is a true example of scraping of the barrel for cinematic ideas and gathering nothing more than a set of shocking images aimed to please gorehounds and repulse the squeamish. Trickling alongside that are the mandatory subtexts of racist ideologies, degradation of women and sociopolitical issues.

Island of the Fishmen (1979)

2010-07-24T19:04:00.000+01:00

Island of the Fishmen/L'isola degli uomini pesce was co-written and directed by Sergio Martino, one of Italy's most dexterous directors. The screenplay was co-written by Cesare Frugoni, who also had a hand in crafting the two other films in Martino's "Adventure Trilogy". Those two being, The Mountain of the Cannibal God/La montagna del dio cannibale (1978) and Big Alligator River/Il fiume del grande caimano (1979).

Worthy of note are the other two screenwriters Sergio Donati, who wrote the screenplays for Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una volta il West (1968) and A Fistful of Dynamite/Duck , You Sucker!/Giù la testa (1971). The other, Sergio Martino's brother Luciano who also produced the film. Upon release in the States the film was retitled Screamers and had gorier opening featuring Mel Ferrer and Cameron Mitchell.

Starring: Claudio Cassinelli, Barbara Bach, Richard Johnson, Beryl Cunningham, Franco Iavarone, Joseph Cotten, Roberto Posse, Franco Mazzieri and Giuseppe Castellano.

Lost at sea, Lt. Claude de Ross (Cassinelli) and a ragtag group of convicts are suddenly thrown overboard when their life raft crashes into a mysterious island's coastline. Awakening on the shore, a dilapidated Ross roams inland for water, finding one convict dead and saving another from sealing his fate by drinking from a grubby spring. He and José (Iavarone) go in search of fresh water, here they meet up with the other survivors and they're quick to remind Claude that without his revolver, he poses no authority over them.

They soon encounter the gorgeous Amanda Marvin (Bach), Amanda warns the men that they must return to the beach and find a way of leaving the island, instead they follow her back to a mansion. Here, they meet the island's owner Edmond Rackham (Johnson), a pompous troll who likes to impose his authority and self importance onto Claude, thankfully Rackham provides food and shelter for the uninvited guests. It's not long before the surviving convicts begin to disappear and Claude smells something "fishy" is at hand. As it turns out, Rackham is conducting bizarre scientific experimentation in an attempt to salvage gold from the lost city of Atlantis and nothing will stand in the way of his desire for fortune.

Island of the Fishmen successfully blends themes from H.G. Wells' novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, Jack Arnold's Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and an added element of 'planation owner' from Russ Meyer's Black Snake (1973). At times it even feels oddly like Sinbad the Sailor mixed with the TV show Stingray.
Lacking very little nudity, save for a few glimpses of Bach's nips, very little gore and fishmen that look like they're made out of papier-mâché. Martino manages to create an ambitious picture with an intriguing story, packed with wild set pieces, crazy costumes, lush locations and a wobbly undercurrent of power play and governance.

While it's not Martino's best, it's definitely one worth fishing out as it's entertainment value rarely wears thin, even after repeat viewings.

The Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971)

2010-07-19T23:15:00.003+01:00

The giallo, one of my favourite sub-genres and one that essentially served as a gateway for me to fully appreciate Italian cinema. Here at 42nd Street Cinema, I don't feel as though my said love for gialli is fully conveyed and so, with that in mind, I'm going to be taking a look at Paolo Cavara's The Black Belly of the Tarantula/La tarantola dal ventre nero.

Initially starting out as a controversial mondo-documentary filmmaker, Paolo Cavara co-wrote and co-directed Mondo Cane (1962) and Women of the World (1963) with Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi.

Cavara would later go on to direct The Black Belly of The Tarantula/La tarantola dal ventre nero, a competent entry into the gialli sub-genre and a cash-in on the success of Argento's Animal Trilogy.
Yet, while it's not a stand out title, especially when compared to Argento's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970), Martino's The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971) and Dallamano's What Have You Done to Solange? (1972), it most certainly delivers what a fan would come to expect, with all the trimmings; bright red blood, exposed flesh, shiny blades and ample amounts of red herrings included.
Starring: Giancarlo Giannini, Barbara Bouchet, Claudine Auger, Silvano Tranquilli, Barbara Bach, Stefania Sandrelli, Rossella Falk and Ezio Marano.

Opening with a torridly erotic massage of Barbara Bouchet's back and thighs; the scene is accompanied by a sexually charged score courtesy of Ennio Morricone. We soon slip into the narrative and quickly discover that Maria (Bouchet) is involved in an illicit affair, however she's actually a victim of blackmail, with the materialization of a photograph sent to her husband. Before she is even given a chance to explain, she is stalked and brutally murdered by a shadowy figure. The killer's unique method of immolation begins with a acupuncture needle dipped in the venom of a rare wasp and so when thrust into a victim's neck, it renders them essentially paralyzed, however allows them to witness their own death. Once paralyzed the victim is then stabbed in their stomach and partially slit open.

It would appear that the customers of a highbrow health spa are being brutally offed. Inspector Tellini (Giannini) is assigned to solve the case, unfortunately and frustratingly for him every time he picks up on a new lead they end up being killed off. While working this case, Tellini comes to unravel a drug smuggling ring, who hide bags of cocaine in cartons containing exotic spiders. Unlike a lot of gialli which suffer from dull or sluggish plots, these subplots really add a lot to the overall pacing and at the same time helps to establish and develop lead characters.
Tellini soon realizes that he and his wife Anna (Sandrelli) have become targets and must act fast in order to solve this ever-expanding mystery.

The Black Belly of the Tarantula tends to utilize the conventional formulaic gialli plot development and while it has a rather lackluster twist, I must praise Cavara for the gorgeous mise en scène, which is often a direct contrast to the unflinching misogynistic violence displayed on-screen. From screen splitting close-ups to brilliantly framed murder scenes, Cavara's initiative compositions of lighting and colour use add to the most intense sequences and border on almost art-house sensibilities. Ennio Morricone's tantalizingly seductive score is another strong attribute which serves only to intensify the visual element.
On top of that, the film boasts not 1 but 3 bond girls as cast members who don't really add much apart from their outstanding beauty. The film is predominantly held together by Giancarlo Giannini, who portrays the emotionally dialed in Police Inspector perfectly.

All in all, The Black Belly of the Tarantula is a prime example of the genius of gialli and how captivating the sub-genre can be. Bravo!

Nightmare City (1980)

2010-07-06T00:54:00.063+01:00

Umberto Lenzi's stab at the ecological awareness theme with Nightmare City.
Starring: Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Mel Ferrer, Maria Rosaria Omaggio.

Also known as; Incubo sulla città contaminata and City of the Walking Dead. Made prior to Eaten Alive/Mangiati vivi! (1980), and the film Lenzi is probably most renowned for; Cannibal Ferox (1981). Nightmare City is essentially a 'zompire' movie - crossbreed of zombie and vampire films, as the attacking fiends require fresh human blood in order to replace their own red blood cells that have become supposedly destroyed by radiation. They also use guns, knives and other various instruments of destruction to slit, gash and tear victims open, before feasting upon the flowing red. To further differentiate itself from the likes of Fulci's shuffling flower pots and Bianchi's tortoise paced ghouls, Lenzi's zompires are lighting fast. A possible precursor for the 28 Days Later (2002) 'rage virus' infected villains.

The premise of Nightmare City is that the passengers of a Hercules transportation aircraft have become infected by radiation and thus, need to feast on uncontaminated human blood as a means to survive. Soon enough the entire city is teeming with atomic zombies, the film is purportedly set in the USA though, given it's an Italian-Spanish co-production it was probably shot somewhere in Spain.
In the middle of this is reporter Dean Miller (Stiglitz), his beautiful wife Dr. Anna Miller (Trotter) and trying to contain the outbreak; a bewildered General Murchison (Ferrer). As the zombies begin to multiply quicker than they're being destroyed, Dean and Anna go on the run, in an attempt to leave the city limits and seek salvage. Only to their dismay do they learn that the chaos has spread throughout the state.
Dean and Anna eventually escape to a fairground, where they climb to the top of a roller coaster allowing a helicopter to rescue them from the pursuing horde.

Sadly, Nightmare City suffers from an incredibly uninspiring and unoriginal ending. The ending goes a little something like this...As the couple grab onto the chopper's rope, Anna loses her grip and falls to her death, Dean lets out a horrified scream and that's when he wakes up in bed. Yes, it was all a dream. That is until he goes to an appointment at the airport and a mysterious Hercules plane comes flying in. It is an ending like this that fully demonstrates how not even Lenzi knew how to end this film and instead of giving it a straight linear plot he tacks on a Groundhog Day (1993) circular narrative, complete with an idiotic freeze frame followed by a meaningless quote. See picture below.
Thankfully, the film's quick pacing and gruesome attack sequences make up for the gaping plot holes and standard direction. I don't think I've ever seen someone walk so awkwardly on-screen as Stiglitz in this, it's as if his arms are stitched to his sides. Stelvio Cipriani's score is a plus even if it is somewhat unfitting at times.
Nevertheless, Nightmare City is definitely enjoyable as it is laughable, certainly one to seek out if you're getting into Italian trash.

In closing, I want you to play a little game with the first image above. It's called 'Where's Zompi the zompire dog?'

Burial Ground (1981)

2010-07-05T21:02:00.112+01:00

After contributing to The Blood Sprayer's Italian themed week, I've been reacquainting my love for the country's splattery output. In fact it's been quite a while since I reviewed anything that wasn't Italian and in continuation with this trend, I'm going to share my thoughts on Andrea Bianchi's dismal submission to our dearly beloved zombie sub-genre.

Known as: Le notti del terrore in Italy and widely recognized as Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror, it's an abominable yet oddly eclectic entry, as it borrows the 'house invasion/siege' element from Romero's seminal Night of the Living Dead (1968), unintentionally incorporates the clumsiness of Zombie Creeping Flesh (1980) and combines sex & horror together in a fashion so similar to that of Joe D'Amato. This culminates in an awkward mishmash of grindhouse glory and brutal nihilistic misery and yet, as good as that may sound, you'll be swiftly disappointed, as Bianchi's superior level of ineptitude and hackery run rampant (much like cast members) in Burial Ground.
Written by Piero Regnoli, who also had a hand in co-writing Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City (1980).
Starring: Karin Well, Peter Bark, Mariangela Giordano (as Maria Angela Giordan), Gianluigi Chirizzi (as Gian Luigi Chirizzi), Simone Mattioli, Antonella Antinori, Roberto Caporali, Claudio Zucchet, Anna Valente and Raimondo Barbieri (as Renato Barbieri).

The plot, as thin as it begins with Professor Ayres opening a crypt and being killed by freshly revived zombies. Prior to this, he had invited 3 couples to visit him at his manor to unveil his new discovery. Unfortunately for this motley crew they never find the Professor, instead they come under attack from a horde of zombies. They seek refuge in the mansion and attempt to survive the zombie onslaught.

Burial Ground is something of an irrational mess as it bares no true explanation as to why the dead have risen to feast upon the living. In fact, it serves as nothing more than a showcase of people being gruesomely torn apart by the living dead. There's a scene that essentially rips off the 'impaled eyeball' from Zombi 2 (1979), only exchanging the wooden splinter for a shard of glass. Bianchi dives into the morally absurd with an undercurrent of incest and creates an uncomfortable atmosphere assisted by the aberrant soundtrack courtesy of Elsio Mancuso and Berto Pisano. It will also undoubtedly provide enough of the red stuff to satisfy gorehounds the World over, but let's step back for a moment, put the gore aside and pick apart what other delights Burial Ground has to offer.

First up, we've got this peculiar man-child with an Oedipus complex, who goes by the name of Michael characterized by one Peter Bark (apparently his real name is Pietro Barcella). Burial Ground delves into very dark and perverse territory through the son and mother - 'Michael & Evelyn' characters. There is an overtly clear oedipal lust going on with Michael for Evelyn (Giordano) and this is begins to escalate along with the story's gradual progresses, as his mother seems to become wholly reciprocative of these urges and the potential incestuous relationship is explored with dialogue such as, "When I was a baby, you always used to hold me to your breast. I loved your breasts so much, mama" and "Oh yes darling, just like when you were a baby. Go ahead, darling. I know you want to..." Towards the end of the film, when Michael has been 'zombified', his mother allows him to breast feed (quite literally), only she's unaware he's going to take a chunk out of her chest, adding furthermore to the bizarre Freudian exploration/exploitation.

Secondly, the so bad it's funny dialogue, which is intensified by the dastardly dubbing. One of the film's most notable quotes is unsurprisingly from Michael as he displays his amazing talent of being able to smell death on fabric with, "Mother, this cloth, it smells of death". Along with that, was the inability to spell 'nights' on closing quote of the film. See above image.

Thirdly, the overall look of the zombies, they certainly look as if they've spent years and years steadily decaying. Empty eye sockets, covered in worms/maggots and of course...protruding teeth. Gino Di Rossi, who had previously worked in the special effects department on Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979) and City of the Living Dead (1980), provides an impressive onslaught of ghoulish flesh eaters that are reminiscent to that of Amando de Ossorio's Blind Dead series amalgamated with Fulci's grave rising walking flower pots. Bianchi's zombies are also able to use tools to aid their slaying of the living, including a decapitation by scythe scene.

The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970)

2010-07-04T00:01:00.000+01:00

Luciano Ercoli's sexually tense and ridiculously titled giallo thriller. The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion/Le foto proibite di una signora per bene features an intricately woven plot by the talented Ernesto Gastaldi.
Starring: Dagmar Lassander, Pier Paolo Capponi, Nieves Navarro (as Susan Scott), Simón Andreu, Osvaldo Genazzani and Salvador Huguet.

Forbidden Photos is essentially Luciano Ercoli's introduction to the giallo genre. He would later go on to direct another 2 gialli, which would also be told from a female perspective. Those being Death Walks on High Heels/La morte cammina con i tacchi alti (1971) and Death Walks at Midnight/La morte accarezza a mezzanotte (1972). Nieves Navarro would also return to to work with Ercoli and become the protagonist for these two films.

In all 3 of Ercoli's gialli there is an interesting trait, in which, the female protagonists are portrayed as being utterly oblivious to their surroundings in addition to being ultimately helpless, when confronted by a male character, who are generally established as chauvinistic and malevolent, these trappings are exacerbated. The device works exceptionally given this film's particular story which solely involves manipulation and power play.

That said, the plot involves; love, betrayal, sex and dominance. Slap bang in the middle of this is Minou (Lassander), a hapless housewife who hangs on her husband Peter's (Capponi) every last word. Introduced through Dominique (Navarro), Minou's best friend and a former lover of Peter, who has an insatiable sexual appetite.
Shortly after leaving her apartment Minou is stalked by a mysterious man on a motorcycle, who confronts her with information regarding her husband's possible involvement with a murder. This eventually leads to Minou being blackmailed into sleeping with the man and the thought of doubt towards her husband firmly planted in her mind. The plot really starts coming together, when Minou and Dominique are looking through pornographic photos imported from Denmark and Minou recognizes the man as the blackmailer. What game is she involved in and who are the players?

The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion is a really underrated giallo, that breaks the conventional moulds affirmed by the likes of Bava and Argento and substitutes graphically depicted violence for a more psychologically grueling plot, all the while remaining totally stylish thanks to incredibly lighting and smooth cinematography that is further enhanced by Ennio Morricone's dreamy and almost enchanting score.
Dagmar is simply gorgeous as the sultry Minou, Navarro is great as the devious best friend and Capponi effectively conveys the dismissive and conniving nature of his character. The film has such a great late 60s chic fashion colour pallet, the set and costumes really bleed nostalgia onto the screen.

In closing, genre fans should seek this little beauty out. Hell, even if you don't like gialli, just watch it.

Zombie Creeping Flesh (1980)

2010-06-30T06:00:00.002+01:00

Bruno Mattei's awkwardly paced answer to Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978).
Also known as; Virus, Hell of the Living Dead and Night of the Zombies., Zombie Creeping Flesh initially gained an X rating for its cinematic release in a 1982 Britannia and later, landed a spot on the infamous nasty list.
Starring: Margit Evelyn Newton, Franco Garofalo (as Frank Garfield), Selan Karay, José Gras (as Robert O'Neil), Gabriel Renom (as Gaby Renom) and Josep Lluís Fonoll (as Luis Fonoll).

Zombie Creeping Flesh serves as Mattei's first dabbling with the undead, he also released it using the pseudonym of 'Vincent Dawn' which is presumably, a nod to Dawn of the Dead (1978). Mattei, would later go on to co-direct Zombi 3 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters 2) in 1988, with Lucio Fulci. By Mattei's own estimation shot "40%" of the film.

Based on an original film treatment by José María Cunillés and later fleshed out into a large script by Claudio Fragasso, the man behind the infamous Troll 2 (1990). He and Mattei became something of an unstoppable 'gruesome twosome' in the Italian exploitation film market. In reference to certain scenes from Zombie Creeping Flesh, Fragasso once stated "I was the one who insisted Bruno use gore, because without blood and entrails, this type of film would be completely pointless". At least he knew how to appease fans of exploitative zombie films.
Mattei, initially starting out as an editor in the 1960s, claimed to have edited over 100 films between then and the early 1970s, before landing in the director's chair for Armida (1970). A couple years later he helmed two nazisploitation features which would successfully make him a name in the exploitation genre.

Shot in Spain, although actually set in New Guinea. Mattei used his editorial experience and stock footage from a documentary to overcome the lack of jungles while shooting in Spain. According to the film's IMDB page, the native footage is from the film La vallée (1972). Never will you see so much filler stock footage in one zombie movie than this and the repeated idea of 'borrowing' from Romero's Dawn even extends to the film's soundtrack, where Goblin's score for Dawn of the Dead (1978) is frequently used, almost causing legal action as Goblin had not authorized the use of their material.

The plot starts off with a chemical leak at a research facility called Hope, gradually turning the employees into hungry flesh eaters. After that opening sequence, the following introduction to characters plays out in a very similar manner to Dawn. Beginning with a SWAT team led by Lt. Mike London (Gras) exercising orders to eliminate a group of terrorists and save hostages. Once that mission is over and done with, the group of commandos are despatched to Papua New Guinea due to investigate the absence of communication with Hope, as the intelligence suggests it could be down to potential terrorist activity. Soon enough the commandos encounter reporter/journalist Lia Rousseau (Newton) and her cameraman Max (Karay) who're covering a story, pertaining to violent attacks on the native population.
The troop find that the country is overrun with zombies and that the Hope facility is responsible. An experimental chemical had been released which kills people and turns them into zombies and was a sinister plot intended to curb the Third World population. However in the closing moments of the film, it appears that the contagion has spread to the First World and a zombie epidemic is imminent.

For what is essentially a good-bad film, it carries a seriously strong point of Third World exploitation, pollution and overpopulation. Mattei's haphazardly style of filmmaking oozes a strange uneasy uniqueness, this is only reinforced by the laughable amount of continuity goofs and how much it shamelessly borrows from better Italian and American zombie films. Franco Garofalo is great in this and at times, practically carries the film on his facial expressions and crazy antics. Zombie Creeping Flesh has lots of memorable sequences, my personal favourite involves a cat jumping out of an old lady's stomach. It also has enough zombie attacks and gore to warrant it a lot of re-watch value, especially if you throw a friend or two into the mix.

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977)

2010-06-13T16:30:00.004+01:00

Joe D'Amato's most competent and thoroughly enjoyable piece of work I've seen thus far.
Starring: Laura Gemser, Gabriele Tinti, Nieves Navarro (credited as Susan Scott) and Donald O’Brien.

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals/Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali, also known as Trap Them and Kill Them, successfully takes sexploitation from the confines of the city limits to the savage and lawless jungle.
Clocking in at the very start of the 'Cannibal boom' and its only predecessor being Deodato's Ultimo Mondo Cannibale/Last Cannibal World (1977). A film which compared to this, is very different given the notably darker atmosphere and powerful sense of nihilism running right to the core.
In my opinion Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals is a film that could be split into 2 halves. With the first half serving as a softcore porno and the latter; a gory exploitation adventure movie in the style of Deodato. The prevalent mixing of eroticism and horror displayed here could later serve as the basis for D'Amato's Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980) and Porno Holocaust (1981), only more hardcore and even less class.

Beginning in New York City, Emanuelle (Gemser) is an undercover journalist working at a mental asylum, gathering material for a news article pertaining to patient abuse. After one of the nurses is attacked by a patient, Emanuelle becomes inquisitive towards the girl's origin, further learning via a tattoo on the patient's body that she once belonged to a now extinct cannibal tribe. Enlisting the help of expert anthropologist Mark Lester (Tinti) they head off on an exploration into the amazon in search of the 'lost tribe'. Their adventure takes a turn for the worst when they realize that the tribe is still active and lack hospitality.

By no means was D'Amato an artist, though in fairness, a few of his films do hold some artistic merit and he was a fantastic cinematographer. But what he excelled at was creating profit and this lead him into essentially becoming a mass producer of trash cinema. Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals isn't really exempt from this however I found it to be entertaining and sometimes quite sexy. Gemser has the scariest pair of hands and Susan Scott pulls off her role as a sultry cheating wife. The sex scenes are stylishly shot and somewhat classy, which actually surprised me as I wasn't sure if this was another of D'Amato's hardcore affairs. I'd also like to point out how well shot the sacrificial killing scenes are, including a guy who gets cut in half by a rope which must utilize early CG. If you haven't seen this, I personally think you should dig it out and give it a watch.

SS Experiment Love Camp (1976)

2010-06-06T14:22:00.006+01:00

Sergio Garrone's first foray into nazisploitation and to be brutally honest, it's considerably uninspiring. SS Experiment Love Camp, also known as Lager SSadis Kastrat Kommandantur and SS Experiment Camp.
Starring: Mircha Carven, Paola Corazzi, Giorgio Cerioni and Serafino Profumo.

First making a name for itself by being one of the most notorious during the video nasty witch hunt of a mid 80s Britannia.
Made a year before Batzella's The Beast In Heat (1977). Garrone's SS Experiment Love Camp has a marginally rich depth to its story, given the subject matter and questionable plot devices, a few off the top of my head include; torture, surgical experimentation, castration and of course love.

The picture essentially showcases atrocities taking place at an unspecified concentration camp. Female POWs are subjected to repeated raping from a selection of German soldiers, in an attempt to...umm learn something? Or perhaps aid the creation of the 'super' race, either way they're definitely taking a page out of Mengele's book. Running alongside this is a Colonel (Cerioni) who needs a new set of balls - after having them bit off/mutilated by a woman he attempted to rape, a female POW (Corazzi) who falls in love with a German soldier named Helmut (Carven), a misogynistic Sergeant (Profumo) and a doctor working against his will.

Helmut - the said soldier in love strikes a deal with Col. von Kleiben, he will volunteer to be the second subject for an experiment so long as he is allowed to stay at the base and continue seeing Mirelle (his love). Unbeknown to him the experiment is really a ball transplant for the scheming von Kleiben, culminating with Helmut going 'nuts' when he tries to make love to Mirelle and thus sets out to seek revenge against von Kleiben. To be honest, it's really in the last 10 - 15 minutes when this film comes together and truly entertains the viewer.

I have intentionally used 'friendly' images as to not have my blog reported for not having a warning for adult material. So, apologies if they are somewhat boring.

Yes dear reader, I was sadly disappointed by SS Experiment Love Camp. I hyped myself up for something sleaze-tacular and what I got was something snooze-tacular. The bad acting, bad script and low production values are only further debased by the films sluggish pace with overly long dialogue scenes, complete lack of style, direction and well sleaze - Yes there's boobs, yes there's bums, yes there's some dodgy surgery scenes, but unfortunately they are few and far between and frankly not very impressive. Seek only if you want to view the entire nasty list and if you're a nazisploitation fan you've probably already seen it.

The House by the Cemetery (1981)

2010-06-03T16:00:00.017+01:00

Continuing the trend of Video Nasties and Italian films, I'm going to be taking a look at Lucio Fulci's eerie Shining-esque The House by the Cemetery. Also known by its native title; Quella villa accanto al cimitero. Starring: Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Giovanni Frezza and Dagmar Lassander.

One of Fulci's later zombie movies that, along with City of the Living Dead/Paura nella città dei morti viventi (1980) and The Beyond/L'aldilà (1981), captures a surreal and ominous atmospheric essence and is ultimately one of my favourite Fulci affairs.

With The House by the Cemetery, Fulci provides a slightly more conventional film, taking elements from early slashers and giving them a Fulci-twist, predominantly during the initial setup in which a female and her male lover are slaughtered by an unseen assailant. Though, that said, it still has quantitative gaps in narrative logic, however, if it lacked such perplexing incoherencies throughout, it probably wouldn't evoke such a set of emotional and cognitive responses.

The films plot revolves around Norman (Paolo Malco), Lucy (Catriona MacColl) and Bob (Giovanni Frezza) Boyle who are preparing to move into their new house, in New England. Previously the house belonged to Norman's ex-colleague, who murdered his wife before killing himself.
Now, the Boyles are to spend 6 months in this house while Norman finishes his research project at the request of his employer. During the 19th century the house was occupied by the Freudstein family and now, something hideous lurks in the basement. It appears that Dr. Freudstein never died and extensively researched a way to prolong human life. A process which involves the collection of fresh body parts. Yes, Dr. Freudstein himself is alive and kickin' in the basement of The House by the Cemetery.

The House by the Cemetery is easily one of the most stylish, atmospheric, confusing and downright paradoxical films I've ever seen. Especially given the ending which, while it makes sense, it simultaneously doesn't. Anyone who has seen this will understand what I'm going on about it's headache worthy to say the least and probably one reason why you shouldn't look too deeply into, however, given the antagonists name, Freudstein (which is clearly an amalgamation of Sigmund Freud's last name and that of Frankenstein and/or his monster), it's difficult not to attempt the seemingly impossible.

The gorgeous cinematography and lens-filling close ups add to the often overbearing malicious atmosphere, reinforced by Walter Rizzati's scoring, resulting in an intoxication of the viewer with an unrelenting feeling of unease that hangs around after the credits have rolled.
Fulci then leaves you with nothing more than a quote and I have no doubts you will ponder over the meaning, all the while wondering exactly what it is you have just witnessed.

Antropophagus (1980)

2010-05-27T21:46:00.003+01:00

As you may already know I am very fond of Italian genre cinema, although that affection may not be fully displayed on this blog as much as it should be. To me there is no better comfort blanket than some quality Euro-horror trash and feeling a little low as of late I decided to indulge my 'sick' tooth with Joe D'Amato's Antropophagus. Starring Euro-trash usuals: Tisa Farrow, Serena Grandi and George Eastman - who also co-wrote this under the pseudonym 'Louis Montefiori' with D'Amato (Aristide Massaccesi).

Yet another film that snuck into rental shops and homes during the pre-VRA (Video Recordings Act) era of Britain and subsequently getting banned and deemed a Video Nasty, mainly down to the infamous fetus eating scene, in which it was believed to be a true snuff film. You can see Eastman's grizzly visage on the newspaper clipping below, it also makes for an amusing read. I've also included a few other clippings that you may or equally may not be interested in. Being -5 at the time, it's an era of cinematic history I sadly missed out on. Even to this day my Dad likes to rub my nose in the dirt by reminding me that he and my mother saw Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) theatrically.

Anyway, back to 'pophagus (a nickname I cooked up for this charming little nasty), like many of its ilk it sports a multitude of different titles/alternative spellings, a selection of them being; Anthropophagous, Anthropophagous: The Beast and Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper.

I have begun to notice something of a trend or reoccurring devices, if you will, used in at least 4 of D'Amato movies...I know what you're thinking and surprisingly it's not the gratuitous sex scenes. Instead, it's the themes of; isolation on or off islands and/or tourism. Examples of this include; Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980), Porno Holocaust (1981), Antropophagus (1980) and Buio Omega (1979). The aforementioned Antropophagus and Buio Omega along with Absurd (1981) are widely considered D'Amato's only straight up horror films.

Antropophagus involves a group of tourists who travel to a remote Greek island. Upon arrival at the said island they soon discover that the locals have disappeared and that they are being followed or more rather stalked and gruesomely 'offed' by a menacing presence with a grim back story. The menacing presence brought into question is none other than Italy's George Eastman/Luigi Montefiori in one of his most memorable roles as one Nikos Karamanlis turned lunatic 'pophagus. Once an ordinary man, a husband, a father now changed forever after being forced to eat his dead child and accidentally killing his wife (and probably eating her too afterwards) while lost at sea. Further on in the film one of the characters is lead through a series of catacombs, a scene renowned by fanatics of 'trash' cinema for the use of real skeletal remains which were apparently packed away with the prop skulls after filming was complete.

Eastman is definitively chilling and delivers what is probably his best performance as the island dwelling cannibalistic killer, a performance which is enhanced by the creepy and oppressive atmosphere. D'Amato proves to us as an audience that he was capable of knocking out more than just cheap porn flicks and with Antropophagus he successfully creates an atmospheric shocker. Undoubtedly it's a film with odd pacing and a strange mixing of good, bad and lifeless acting that will divide certain audiences. I personally find this film hard to classify, I'm torn between slasher and horror. So, what would you call it a slasher? or a horror? or something else entirely?

The Black Gestapo (1975)

2010-05-21T08:12:00.002+01:00

Lee Frost's grimy blaxploitation picture The Black Gestapo. Starring: Rod Perry, Charles Robinson.

I admit, I am considerably new to the blaxploitation sub-genre. I think this is the second film I've seen within the sub-genre, the first being Russ Meyer's Black Snake (1973). Thus far, I'm enjoying what it has to offer.

The Black Gestapo is essentially about a vigilante named General Ahmed (Rod Perry), who forms an inner-city "People's Army" to protect the black members of the community in Watts, Los Angeles, California, from white Mafia thugs. Ahmed is approached by his second in command Colonel Kojah (Charles Robinson), who requests permission to start a protection squad as a more direct approach to the ever increasing white threat. Ahmed gives Kojah the go-ahead to form his squad. The squad quickly turns to racketeering and prostitution, essentially putting the Mafia out of business and taking over. Now, Ahmed must put an end to the wannabe tyrant Kojah and his Black Gestapo.

The Black Gestapo is a fun bad movie, it was clearly made on the cheap with very little values (both production and moral). You got: castration, naked women, blacks dressed like Nazis and bad-ass action with a funky soundtrack accompaniment. One comically memorable scene springs instantly to mind where there appears to be some sort of comparison between the black militant group and the Nazis. The scene shows the entire group raising their first into the air and repeatedly shouting "Vengeance". To which there is an overdubbed shouting of "Sieg Heil" by the Third Reich. After reading that last line back to myself I began to imagine Nazi Germany sounding something like a barbershop quartet, who enthusiastically sing a song about victory.

Sadly, the aforementioned list of enticement is hampered somewhat by actor's inadequacies in terms believability and their lack of actual character, but when you see past that you realize that it's not all bad and that The Black Gestapo is one titillatingly entertaining picture worthy of at least one viewing from all scuzz-hounds.

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)

2010-05-10T18:02:00.047+01:00

100% Medically Accurate - Boasts the poster. How true is this? I wouldn't know since my knowledge of human anatomy and medical science is limited at best. However, what I do know is that apparently the director, Tom Six consulted a Dutch surgeon who theorized a method which 'could' (keyword) work in real life. Six also claimed that administering an IV drip to the middle and back parts, the centipede would be able to survive for a very long time.

The Human Centipede spins the tale of one Dr. Josef Heiter (Dieter Laser), a crazed surgeon who once specialized in the separation of siamese twins. His name/character could be a possible connection to Josef Mengele who took great interest in twins.
Now, he's suddenly turned his attention to the attachment of creatures, essentially creating 'centipedes'. The first experiment involved his 3 Rottweilers, attaching one's mouth to the other's anus, something that's never seen apart from a selection of photos. Gaining confidence and furthering his research the doctor is obviously ready to go to the next phase...Human testing. Kidnapping a truck driver from the side of the road and later having two U.S. tourists, Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie) arrive at his house due to their car getting a flat tyre. For some reason the trucker isn't a 'match' for the two girls and so he is quickly disposed of, but soon enough the doctor is back with a replacement; a japanese tourist named Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura). From here on in Dr. Heiter explains the procedure in great detail, how they will share a digestive system as they are to be joined via their mouthes to anuses, he then preps everything ready for the creation of THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE.

I wasn't entirely sure how to take in this film; on one hand it works very well as an artsy, dark comedy and on the other it's a stylishly shot body horror film echoing the early works of David Cronenberg. But, regardless of how you look at it if you remove the hype it's solidly entertaining but falls short on expansion of the narrative, because once you're past the whole centipede thing there isn't much more to follow. Dieter Laser's performance as the maniacal doctor is chilling, after a while you really develop a distaste for the character and during the final showdown with the police I found myself shouting "shoot him!". At times it feels a little like Re-Animator (1985) crossed with Hostel (2005) but the originality of this film is through the roof and it is one thing I cannot praise it enough for.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

2010-05-07T00:15:00.082+01:00

So, I'm back from London. I couldn't stick around for the second film due to catching trains and whatnot, which is incredibly unfortunate as they announced that the second film to screen would be the original Wes Craven classic from 1984, straight after the 2010 travesty with a 15 minute interval in-between. That's right folks, I didn't dig it, so for the most part this is probably going to be a complete lambast-fest, apart from the things I did enjoy though they are few and far between.

Set in the present day, the teens of Elm Street are being stalked in their dreams by a mysterious character. After one teen is killed the others quickly learn that they all share a common link stemming back to their childhood. Fred Krueger. A man who worked at their preschool and subsequently abused all of them. When the children tell their parents about Krueger and what he had done, they then begin a hunt for Krueger, chasing him down and burning him alive. Now as a supernatural entity, Freddy begins reaping his revenge - killing off those who alerted their parents about his crimes.

Directed by Samuel Bayer, who to his credit has made a good debut with this. Previously he has directed a lot of music videos for popular artists. However, this ain't MTV, this is horror cinema.

Jackie Earle Haley assumes the role of Freddy Krueger, a bold move for any actor other than Robert Englund and congratulations to him, I think he did a great job. Admittedly, I like the look of this incarnation of Krueger, his face appears more melted and deformed by fire as opposed to the original makeup which looked as if only the first few layers of skin was missing. That said, whenever Freddy speaks a line in this version I was forever reminded of Rorschach from Watchmen. For this re-imagining they transformed the Freddy character from his original 'child murderer-come wise cracking antihero' back-story into a physically and sexually child abusing repugnant villain. Knowing people who have been victims of child abuse I have a feeling that they would be turned off by this new direction for the character, especially with some of the jokes, as at times they feel wholly tasteless and unnecessary.

About half way through the film there was an interesting plot device introduced regarding 'What if Freddy was an innocent man?' luring the viewer into a great feeling of sympathy for him, since they cut in flashback sequences of him playing (don't think dirty thoughts) with the children at school. Again an interesting twist and something which I quite liked, only it wasn't explored for very long. On a little side note, I really wanted John Saxon to be in this, but unfortunately he was not.
Rooney Mara takes on the role of Nancy Holbrook. A character based on Nancy Thompson, originally portrayed by Heather Langenkamp, another name that is synonymous with the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. As for the other characters they felt to be very wooden and lacking any real 'character'.

A lot of the script conveyed itself to me as being rushed, characters would make a great leap from seeing a friend killing himself (actually being killed by Freddy in his sleep) at the start of the film to realizing that if they fall asleep they WILL die. Also the way in which Nancy discovers she could possibly pull Freddy from her dream if she was woken up while holding onto him felt very rushed. The death of Johnny Depp's character was essentially missing, instead opting to have the character of Nancy falling into a thick pool of blood on the floor, before being completely submerged and crashing through it onto a bed.

It would appear that most of these remakes (as well as other new horror flicks) they're a lot louder than their original counterparts and it also seems that these days it requires a loud bang and 'something' jumping out from a corner to get scares. What happened to the menace and tense atmosphere in horror films? I remember watching the 1922 Nosferatu for the first time and being somewhat disturbed by Max Schreck's ghoulish visage and on-screen demeanor.

Onto the next thorn in my side and that would be the overly used CGI. While I'm not against the use of CGI, I wish they would at least use good CGI effects such as those seen in Cloverfield (2008). A scene in particular I'd like to peck away at is the one in which Freddy comes forward through the wall above Nancy's bed. In the original, it looks fantastic and creepy as hell - in the remake however it is done using incredibly bad CG and to be brutally honest, it made me cringe.

A trend of sorts is spreading like Ebola with mainstream horror films and that seems to be a complete lack of substance but at least it looks good. Instances of this is drivel like The Unborn (2009) and Mirrors (2008).
I don't want to put you off with this review as I believe that people should make up their own minds about a film but if you're a huge fan of the original series you're going to find it very hard not to be biased when watching this. So if you don't catch it in cinemas, rent it or watch it online at least because it is worth a watch.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010) - Exclusive London Event, 6th May.

2010-05-05T16:21:00.024+01:00

Just over a week ago, I entered a competition with the hopes of winning a pair of tickets to attend an exclusive screening of the new A Nightmare On Elm Street remake starring Jackie Earle Haley as Krueger.

Well, the competition is now over and upon opening my inbox yesterday I was greeted with a delightful message informing me that I was one of the lucky winners. The said event is due to take place at London's Leicester Square Odeon West End Cinema. According to the email it is set to be a double bill, the other film being one of the sequels to the original 1984 Elm Street, though which one hasn't been specified yet.

When I eventually get back home I will write up my review/general thoughts of the remake, possibly accompanied by some pictures of the event. Having already heard mixed reviews and damning opinions of this picture already, I'll attempt to remain impartial towards it. I generally take one thing into account with most of these remakes/reimaginings and that would be the apparent sprucing up of older films to appeal to the newer generations. In the process they not only piss off but make a quick buck out of fans of the original, because you know you're gonna see it a some point.

So for now - stay tuned, stay sick...

Zombi 2 (1979)

2010-04-27T23:09:00.056+01:00

Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2, also known in the UK as Zombie Flesh Eaters and in the US as just Zombie. It's undoubtedly a title that will ring loudly in the ear of horror aficionados, Fulci fans and nasty lovers to-date.
Starring genre stalwarts: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Olga Karlatos and Dakar.

The native title of Zombi 2 was a marketing ploy to cash in on the success of Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), as that in Italy was billed as Zombi. Suggesting that this would be a sequel, though in fact serves as something more of a prequel.

A mysterious yacht drifts into New York Harbor, the Harbor Control are sent to investigate the vessel. On board, it appears to be like the 'Mary Celeste' that is until, a huge rotting man attacks and kills one of the patrolmen. The other patrolman manages to knock the fiend overboard by firing a few rounds of his pistol into it.
At this point we're introduced to our main protagonist, a young woman named Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow). It seems that the boat belonged to her father, during a questioning from the police she explains that she doesn't know anything other than her father leaving for a tropical island to continue research. Here appears our second protagonist, Peter West (Ian McCulloch) a Reporter. Peter has been assigned to cover the story of the mysterious boat. The pair meet on the boat and after finding a note that details how her father has contracted a strange disease on the island of Matool (or Matul? I'm not sure of the correct spelling).

The duo set off on an exploration to the aforementioned island, on the journey the meet a couple named Brian Hull (Al Cliver) and Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay). When the foursome arrive at the island they soon meet Dr. David Menard (Richard Johnson), his wife Paola (Olga Karlatos). Dr. Menard is studying the island in an attempting to understand why the dead inhabitants return to life and feast upon the flesh of the living.
Surrounded by the living dead, it soon turns into a fight for survival against a horde of hungry flesh eaters.

Fulci took the zombie back to its Caribbean origin, operating outside of Romero's radiation contagion with voodoo and mad scientist themes. Worth mentioning is Giannetto De Rossi's make up effects which are much more distinct than Savini's blue faced ghouls. Unlike his fellow Italian contemporaries efforts, Zombi 2 is a well structured picture. Something that predominantly helps with its pacing and the end result is a brilliantly executed 'high-end' Italian zombie romp, boasting stunning Caribbean backdrops, unforgettable set pieces, political subtexts and a farcical zombie vs. shark sequence.
Love it.

Berserker (1987)

2010-04-25T19:57:00.036+01:00

I basically ended up spending the weekend with a few friends hunting for; records, DVDs and something I wouldn't usually pick up; VHS. One of the said VHS being Jefferson Richard's late backwoods slasher entry Berserker. A film that holds host to a cast of nobodies who interestingly enough went on to be nobodies, spare George 'Buck' Flower.

A group of teens leave the city and take off on a camping vacation in the woodlands. The trip is suddenly thwarted when the sextuplets cross paths with a berserker, a viking warrior who wears the snout and fur of a bear. Without sparing much time the teens are hunted down one by one.
The way in which the narrative is conveyed we're lead to believe that it is a bear acting out the vicious killings. I began to wonder why it wasn't called "Bear-serker" as at times that title seems much more appropriate, though given this day and age people would probably think it a 'gay interest' picture.

Berserker is an effective entry in to the sub-genre. It has the conventional devices of 80s slashers including a 'campfire legend' segment as well as steady pacing, an interesting killer and above average suspense which are absolute must-haves with any slasher picture. Although with such a great premise I firmly believe that if it had been given a better cast and more bloodshed it could have been one of the top backwoods slashers, even with its cheesy ending.

Each character employs the usual cliché suspects of; the jock, the nerd, the wiseass and the attractive lady friends etc. The banter between characters is often humorous and fairly well scripted. Cinematography is stunning, use of fake fog banks and lush woodland backdrop give an overt sense claustrophobia and entrapment. There is a fantastic scene where the berserker fights hand-to-hand with a bear, the sequence is actually quite astounding as it appears the bear is real though obviously tamed. Unfortunately in contrast to that there are a few stupid sequences involving characters running frantically throughout the forest resulting with them being even more lost. That aside I think this would work well in a double bill with Don't Go in the Woods (1981). So go seek 'em both out, order a pizza, kick back and relax.

Axe (1977)

2010-04-22T13:04:00.000+01:00

Getting back into the swing of blogging and making my way further through the Video Nasty list brings me, to talk about Frederick R. Friedel's Axe, also known as Lisa, Lisa, California Axe Murders, The Axe Murders and The Virgin Slaughter. Over at the film's IMDB page I read an interesting tidbit of information regarding this films shooting, apparently it was shot in 11 days and because of a low film stock amount the film was largely shot without retakes, or even the option.
Produced by Harry Novak, legendary (s)exploitation producer and distributor of numerous 60s and 70s softcore sleaze filled pictures.

The plot of Axe concerns a strange young girl named Lisa (Leslie Lee) who lives on an isolated farm along with her paralyzed grandfather (Douglas Powers). In the town nearby a group of 3 criminals are terrorizing the townsfolk, soon after leaving the town they stumble upon Lisa's house. The group look more like a duo of businessmen out for lunch with Bob Ross, who've taken a psychotic turn for the worst. Lisa allows the 3 men to stay at the house and serves them dinner. Two of the gangsters sexually assault her, she retaliates using a straight razor and an axe.

Clocking in at just over an hour, though padded by drawn-out credits, Axe is a short but sweet affair. I think if you were to stretch out the plot it would soon become intolerably boring. It's not as strong or as graphic as other films in the sub-genre, spare a few bloodied close-ups. Acting is all over the place, the soundtrack feels like it has been lifted from a H.G. Lewis picture and the abrupt ending is just plain silly.
Axe is nothing more than a cheap cash in on more successful drive-in pictures. Nothing within the plot is fully explained such as Lisa's self-destructive habits and the gangsters motives or backstory. If you want to watch all of the glorified 'Nasties' then I guess you'll have to watch this one at some point, otherwise it's probably a flick best to skip.

Here's a link to the trailer which contains one of the most unenthusiastic voice-overs I've ever heard.

A Decade of Dash & Slash Part II

2010-04-18T16:28:00.000+01:00

Continuing where the last one left off, apologies for such a long wait.

Drive-In Massacre (1976)
Director: Stu Segall
The plot concerns a killer on the loose, lopping off heads at a California drive-in theatre with a sword. 2 Detectives are put on the case and begin investing the drive-in's owner along with his assistant and a local peeping Tom before going undercover to catch the killer themselves. One short scene I really liked was during the climax of the film, which involves a killing in the projection room and resulting with the silhouettes of both killer and victim being displayed on the big screen. A generic slasher with sluggish dialogue but some cool kills displayed in between. Worth checking out if you have an hour and 14 minutes to 'kill'.

Just Before Dawn (1981)
Director: Jeff Lieberman
A backwoods slasher drawing influence from Deliverance (1972), opting more for an isolated and creepy atmosphere as opposed to over the top gratuitous violence. 5 Teens go on a camping trip deep in the Oregon woods, soon the troupe fall victim to something menacing stirring in the forest surrounding them. With above average acting, lush locations and twin overweight hillbilly maniacs prowling the woodland make for a tense slasher.

Madman (1981)
Director: Joe Giannone
Another Camp slasher cash in, starring Gaylen Ross (though credited as 'Alexis Dubin' of Dawn of the Dead (1978) fame. When the name of serial killer "Madman Marz" is uttered he is somehow brought back to existence and duty calls. So it's not long until counselors are being taken apart...quite literally. Sweet poster art for this little picture too and it really reflects the film well; dark, atmospheric and a great-looking killer who has an axe, well c'mon what backwoodsman hasn't got one?

Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
Director: J. Lee Thompson
A real neglected 80s gem, though it does indeed have something of a cult status, in my opinion it isn't quite what it deserves. The story is about Virginia "Ginny" Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson), a pretty, popular, soon to be 18 and a member of the school's 'elite'. Just before her birthday a string of brutal murders begin cropping up and her friends are on the receiving end. Could it be sweet Ginny as she suffers from blackouts? Soon enough we learn the bizarre truth. Happy Birthday to Me has one of the most 'out of nowhere' twist endings that upon first reflection might not make a lot of sense but upon the final reveal everything comes together solidly.The film's gore isn't over the top as one might imagine but retains a certain realism without bordering in to the completely grotesque.

Visiting Hours (1982)
Director: Jean-Claude Lord
Having both William Shatner and Michael Ironside as cast members you would expect this to be one hell of a good flick. Well you'd half right, while Ironside gives an intense performance as stalker/killer/nut Colt Hawker the film falls short on awkward pacing and pointless characters. Plot basics revolve around Deborah Ballin (Lee Grant) who is brutally attacked by female hating Hawker who fails to kill her, she is admitted to hospital he goes to finish what he started. I'm really on the fence about this film and I'd like to hear views from people who've seen this to help sway me.

Pieces (1982)
Director: Juan Piquer Simón
Beginning with a teenager killing his mother and severing her body parts with an axe. Jump forward to the present day, a serial killer is offing young girls and stealing various body parts at a Boston university campus. Detectives are dispatched in an attempt to stop the killings and solve the case. A Spanish-American production which quickly became a drive-in favourite. Not surprisingly so with the outrageously gory deaths and well hammed acting, a true classic of 'what it was all about'.

The House on Sorority Row (1983)
Director: Mark Rosman
Age old plot of a prank going wrong, this time the location is set in and around a girls sorority house. A group of girls clash with their house mother, they play a prank on her which ends terribly resulting in her death. Panicking, the girls dispose of the body, unknown to them someone witnessed the accident and starts stalk and murder them one by one. An impressive slasher with an iffy cast, some suspenseful sequences and a creepy killer in a jester costume.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Director: Wes Craven
The first introduction of the 4th antihero of horror. Freddy Krueger. Craven's entry in to slasher is an interesting one. The plot at its core is about an 'undead' serial child killer who terrorizes the children of the lynch mob that killed him. I love the premise of a killer who is able to terrorize and kill his victims while they are asleep. As sleep is a necessity it is inescapable and the thought of having to stay awake otherwise you could potentially be killed is pretty horrific. The characters being teenagers too only adds to this as teenagers enjoy their sleep. Krueger's image is instantly recognizable by the green and red striped sweater, brown fedora hat and of course the clawed glove. Similar to both Jason, Michael and Leatherface in the respect that they have their 'weapon of choice' and 'costume', all 4 in an ironic twist have become pop culture icons and celebrated antiheroes.

Blood Feast (1963)

2010-04-16T03:13:00.000+01:00

NOTHING SO APPALLING IN THE ANNALS OF HORROR! The instantly grabbing tagline from Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1963 splatterific Blood Feast. A film widely associated with kick-starting the Splatter and essentially the Slasher film sub-genres. With it's intensely graphic depiction of violence and gore and a 'central' madman. It is also the first in a fan dubbed 'Blood Trilogy' with Two Thousand Maniacs (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965).

In a nutshell Blood Feast is about an insane Egyptian caterer named Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold) who is hired to prepare an authentic Egyptian feast for Suzette Fremont's (Connie Mason) dinner party. Fuad on the other hand uses this as a guise to enable him to kill people, those being predominantly nubile girls, using their body parts in meals and sacrifices to the Egyptian Goddess 'Ishtar'. In reality Ishtar is a Babylonian Goddess of fertility, love, war and sex...or at least that's what wikipedia told me.
With Fuad on his bloody quest to reawaken a dormant Goddess, an embarrassingly inept duo of police detectives attempt to uncover the reasoning behind the recent spike in grotesque homicides, to which they inevitably draw a conclusion that it is indeed one Fuad Ramses.

Behind the alluring facade of gory scenes of mutilation and general carnage Blood Feast doesn't have much else going for it...other than a short runtime of quite literally just over an hour. By no means is it an entirely bad film, it falls short mainly on the script and performances which are often overacted or completely lifeless. It sports a no budget charm and an 'on the fly' approach which is visible throughout, complete with music written and performed by H.G. Lewis himself! The film, for its age manages hold its ground considerably well when pitted against it's modern counterparts, thus enforcing the common belief that Lewis and his producer Friedman were ahead of their time and something of geniuses when marketing their pictures.

Blood Feast is what it is and that happens to be a piece of cheap exploitative trash that will never be forgotten and quite possibly without it, we may not have the splattery treats we have come to know and love.

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (1972)

2010-04-11T00:55:00.004+01:00

Today it is time to drift away from the trappings of conventional slashers and sloshy gorefests and instead explore what East Asia has to offer in the exploitation department. For this venture I have decided to take a look at Kenji Misumi's Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice, the first in a bizarre trilogy starring Shintaro Katsu.
Katsu who also produced the Lone Wolf and Cub series (1972 - 1974) including the something of a compilation and grindhouse favourite Shogun Assassin (1980), along with his portrayal as Zatoichi in the series of the same name.

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice also known by its native title: Goyōkiba, blends Jidaigeki, Crime and Martial Arts into something truly stylish and spectacular.

The story revolves around the central character Hanzo Itami an incorruptible officer of the law in Edo, a Japanese village. Renowned for his unorthodox methods of interrogation, especially when it comes to a female suspect, who he will first penetrate with his 'sword' of justice and then later drink sake with in his bath to which, through what must be his sexual prowess they become infatuated with him. Hanzo also follows what appears to be a strict self-discipline régime where he will flagellate his large penis before practicing intercourse with a bale of rice. We also learn that Hanzo practices self-sadomasochism as he is covered in scars and becomes sexually aroused when in pain.
Through one of his hired vagrants Hanzo begins to suspect that his superior officer's mistress (identifiable by her lack of pubic hair) has ties to an infamous killer. Upon making such a discovery it becomes clear that the killer is no longer on his prison island, or that he was never banished there in the first place, after some more 'poking' around his investigation leads him to believe that the elitist group of Edo is entirely corrupt putting both his job and his life in peril.

While at it's core being pure sleazy exploitation the Sword of Justice serves as a perfect introduction to Hanzo Itami's character and the values that he stands for as well as providing a rather one-sided commentary about corrupt authorities and magisterial rules. The way in which Hanzo tortures himself both physically and mentally to appreciate what pain his victims go through is completely sadistic but at the same time his character wouldn't be so intriguing if he didn't have this trait, along with a subtext of cynicism and contradiction as he's seen to be the honest officer, yet his daring methods which involve rape and torture are not only acts which are clearly morally questionable but also against the law he is trying to enforce.

Beautifully shot using a style of close ups that reminded me of Italian westerns and an unusual, funky and sometimes awkward sounding score from Kunihiko Murai prove this is nothing more than unadulterated entertainment for those with the more unusual tastes.

Sewer Chewer (2010)

2010-04-08T00:30:00.025+01:00

James Hawley's highly enjoyable low-budget independent creature feature Sewer Chewer.

A simplistic plot that pays homage to Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), consisting of a downed satellite landing in a rural area that begins radiating the local wildlife, creating a grotesque mutant monster that seems to have an insatiable appetite for humans. An unknown and unnamed government agency dispatches a special agent to dispose of the satellite, the monster and anyone who knows about it.

Hawley does an immense job of culling the best from a cast of complete unknowns, from what I would imagine none of them have stood in front of a camera before apart from a humorously over-acted cameo by Troma President and co-founder Lloyd Kaufman. The design of 'Chewer' is great, as are the other grisly makeup effects created by Hawley.

The images below are based on a downloaded screener copy.

The bizarre and often disorientating soundtrack coupled with frantic cinematography does an adequate job of amplifying tension. The build up sequences to a character's eventual demise felt overly drawn out, however they do eventually payoff with some hysterically brutal over-the-top gore. Oh yes, there's face ripping, jugular tearing and tentacle raping-a-plenty in Sewer Chewer. A squelchy picture that marks the new era of grindhouse cinema and I for one welcome it wholeheartedly.

Aftermath (1994)

2010-04-04T03:30:00.000+01:00

Nacho Cerdà's 30 minute short is merciless and realistic in it's unflinching exposé of necrophilia.
Starring: Pep Tosar, Jordi Tarrida, Angel Tarres and Xevi Collellmir.
It is the second film in Nacho Cerdà's 'Death Trilogy' with the other two being The Awakening (1990) and Genesis (1998).

Aftermath is shot entirely without dialogue and contains a haunting use of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Lacrimosa. The sound in this film is incredibly detailed; the squelching of viscera, a squeaky crunch of a rubber glove and everything else you would expect to hear in an autopsy room.

The narrative is as straightforward as two morticians carrying out routine autopsies on two male corpses. Eventually, one of the employees finishes off his paper work and wheels the body out, leaving the second attendant on his own. Checking that the coast is clear he locks the room's door and takes out a bag from his locker, before taking the body of 'Marta Arnau' a female who died in a car crash out of the morgue's drawers. At this point the film becomes much darker, connoted by a change in lighting. The mortician begins to ritually remove the corpse's clothes. Tosar is able to efficiently convey both excitement and nervousness, while retaining a strong menace through just his eyes and changes in breathing.
He fondles the body then proceeds to viciously mutilate it, just before setting up a camera on a self timer. As his breathing becomes more and more erratic he mounts and rapes the corpse. The resulting sequence is one of the strongest I've ever sat through. It affects you on more of a emotionally shocking level as opposed to something like Cannibal Holocaust (1980) which is more about the shocking violence. The mortician then removes the woman's heart and place into a bag before washing up and leaving. Now, at home he puts the heart into a blender and feeds it to his dog, we then see him relaxing and watching television.
The film ends with a close up of a newspaper obituary for one Marta Arnau Marti.

Cerdà keeps a constant serious, yet brilliantly stylish approach to such a controversial subject matter throughout. The incredibly defined and realistic looking corpse dummies along with the other gruesome effects were taken care of by DDT. With it's gorgeous cinematography and amazing use of sound, you cannot dispute the amount of passion that went into this film's production. One could argue that it is just exploitation filmmaking, I would disagree. It is more of a statement, yes the film is difficult to sit through, but it still remains that these crimes can, have and probably will happen again and again. It also made me wonder on an incredibly personal level, what will happen to my body, upon my death? Something I will never know, something which none of us will ever know.

Aftermath, a film that is most definitely not recommended for all viewers, however I'm positively sure that avid fans of exploitation and arthouse will eat this up.

Street Trash (1987)

2010-04-03T12:08:00.001+01:00

J. Michael Muro's satirical hobo-melt masterpiece Street Trash.
Starring: Mike Lackey, Vic Noto, Bill Chepil and James Lorinz in a debut appearance.
I have no idea how many melt movies there are but this along with a 1993 Australian picture Body Melt are the only ones I've seen.

Originally based on a ten minute student film directed by Muro and starring Mike Lackey.
The story beings in a degraded area of lower Manhattan, populated by hobos and scumbags. The owner of a small liquor store cleans out the basement and comes across a case of cheap wine that's over 60 years old named "Tenafly Viper". He decides to sell it for 'a buck a bottle' figuring he can sell it to the hobos, little does he know it's 'gone bad' and whoever drinks it will begin to melt away in a hideous yet colourful fashion. Parallel to this there's a cop who's trying to understand why people are melting and gang of sociopathic hobos living in a junkyard lead by a deranged Vietnam veteran.

Muro's decision to shoot using a steadicam was an expensive venture but evidently paid off, although Muro has yet to direct another film he has become one of Hollywood's top steadicam operators.

A flick that's filled to the brim with credible performances from the ensemble cast, character's filthy visages, skidrow locations, comically disgusting deaths and injuries; including a scene where one hobo is castrated, he then frantically runs around the junkyard attempting to find the severed member while the other hobos play a game of 'keep-away' with it.
I love the use of bright colours during the melt scenes, it seems much more effective and memorable than your typical 'blood red' viscera. Reminiscent to Raimi's Evil Dead II (1987).
Street Trash is probably one of the most entertaining and original exploitation gorefests out there.

Cop Killers (1973)

2010-03-28T14:16:00.000+01:00

Walter R. Cichy's vastly entertaining exploitation picture Cop Killers (1973)

Opening with 2 lowlifes; the outright psychotic Ray (Jason Williams) and the more reserved Alex (Bill Osco) on their way to a drug deal, get stopped at a Police roadblock. A shootout ensues resulting in all the cops being killed and the two crooks on the run. Upon arriving at a small town they hijack an ice cream van along with the whiney driver. A scene which is more comical than it is shocking, purely down to the poor dialogue and overacting.
Setting off on a journey of violence, kidnappings and a delivery of drugs that takes them all over Arizona. Resulting in one hell of a joyride.

Cop Killers has all the right ingredients to make it a greatly enjoyable exploitation treat with Cichy's efficiently directed shootouts and makeup effects by Rick Baker who would later provide the award winning effects for Landis' An American Werewolf in London (1981).

Good acting from the two leads, I found that the tension between the two characters was well represented on-screen. This concocted with the corny folk theme song, protracted climactic car chase that must almost consume the entire last reel, cheesy softcore sex, gratuitous nudity and further female degradation make this a nasty nugget of trash cinema that has long been neglected.

Tenement (1985)

2010-03-26T21:35:00.000Z

Roberta Findlay's underrated 'urban warfare' exploitation flick Tenement a.k.a. Game of Survival a.k.a. Slaughter in the South Bronx.

Tenement uses a simple plot which allows itself to be exploited to yield such a factor of violence. Exploring familiar themes such as home invasion, pillaging & rape. Early one morning a South Bronx gang is removed from an apartment block, arrested and vow to get their revenge. An hour later they are released and begin acting out their revenge upon the buildings tenants. The tables turn and remaining survivors join together to fight back against the gang, dispatching them in varyingly gruesome ways.

Unfortunately Findlay's inability to be able to frame a shot better than David Blunkett means there are a fair few scenes where an actor's head is completely out of shot. Not to let that be a complete downside to the film, as it's easily overlooked with help from the awesome 80s soundtrack and over the top violence.

Borrowing themes and techniques from John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and Walter Hill's The Warriors (1979), it pays off extremely and is definitely Roberta's most technically proficient piece of work. Set in a grungy looking apartment block the survivors retreat to the top floor and are forced to defend themselves with whatever they can find, in true 'under siege' style.
On more than one occasion I found myself cheering out whenever one of the tenants would score a kill or a hit against a thug. One scene in particular was met with outright laughter, in which an old lady whacks a gang member in the bollocks with a baseball bat.
It's highly entertaining to any fan of unnecessarily brutal deaths and no doubt highly offensive to the more sensitive viewer making this better than average Z-grade trash.

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980)

2010-03-26T01:40:00.003Z

Joe D'Amato's other secluded island zombie-porno-horror-mess, Le Notti Erotiche dei Morti Viventi also known as Sexy Nights of the Living Dead.
Starring the usual suspects: Laura Gemser, George Eastman & Mark Shannon.

In a nutshell the plot follows Larry O'Hara (Eastman), a sailor who takes John Wilson (Shannon), an American business man and his girlfriend Fiona to a supposedly cursed tropical island, where he plans to build a holiday resort. Upon arriving on the island they meet the mysterious Luna (Gemser) and her decrepit father. Luna gives O'Hara a small figurine as protection and warns them to leave the island as bad things will happen if they stay.
John's refusal to leave somehow spurs on the inevitable resurrection of the island's deceased inhabitants, who soon start to rise from their graves. They also manage to fit in excessive amounts of sex along the way. Marvelous.

The first half of this film plays out almost as a straight up porno, with a very mild zombie theme running alongside the explicit sex. An instantly memorable scene includes a woman giving Eastman a striptease, normal enough right?...Wrong. Out of nowhere she sits a bottle of Champagne on the floor, proceeding to lower herself onto it and beginning to fuck the bottle, well it didn't last long because it quite literally pops its top and the question still remains. Where did the cork go? This is something that is never explained and for the rest of the movie I couldn't help but think/worry about it.
I feel I must also mention Eastman's incredible ability to engage in intercourse with his jeans on, it seems he 'dry humps' every woman he gets lucky with, hows that for contraception?

The last 10 minutes is really where this film comes together in a cacophony of exquisite night shots in the Caribbean sea, zombies that bleed ice cream, a small wooden figure that when thrown to the floor turns into a cat and bounces right back at your face and zombies rising up from the sand on a tropical beach.
Overall, as with most D'Amato movies they look great and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead is no exception with both lush cinematography and tropical scenery. Average acting and decent looking Fulci-esque zombies, when they decide to bloody show up! I also personally prefer this to Porno Holocaust (1981) as it does manage to build something of an atmosphere, even if it is within the closing minutes.
It's one to be seen, with or without the hardcore footage.

Frankenhooker (1990)

2010-03-23T16:46:00.005Z

Frank Henenlotter's comedy horror romp Frankenhooker. Loosely based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, starring: James Lorinz and former Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen.

Opening with budding eccentric scientist Jeffrey Franken (Lorinz) refining one of his experiments, it appears to be a brain with an eyeball in the centre of it. Dragged away from this by his fiancée Elizabeth Shelley (Mullen) as they're due to attend a birthday party for which he's created a remote control lawnmower as a present. Incidentally as Elizabeth is demonstrating the mower and its possibilities she gets herself chopped to pieces.

Struggling to cope with his loss Franken becomes increasingly psychotic and with the use of a power drill develops one of the strangest headache cures among other strange things, like having a romanic dinner at home with the decapitated head of Liz. See his plan is to eventually gather enough body parts to put dear old Liz back together again. Making a trip across the river to NYC's Times Square, he soon becomes engulfed in the seedy underworld of prostitution and habitual drug taking, using the latter to his advantage. Upon arriving home, he quickly engineers some form of 'super crack', a quick test on a guinea pig proves promising that when taken the drug causes the user to explode.
What ensues is a comical sequence that takes place inside a grubby hotel room, involving 6 hookers and a bag of 'super crack'. Soon the hookers begin to explode, including one hilarious POV from that of a detached leg flying towards a lamp. The end result leaves Jeffrey surrounded by limbs, collecting everything he can possibly carry he drives back to his New Jersey home where he begins to piece together his woman. His bizarre plan doesn't go his way and instead of his reanimated Elizabeth wanting him, she just wants his money...and everyone else's.

James Lorinz's portrayal of Jeffrey Franken is brilliant as are Patty Mullen's facial expressions as the reanimated Frankenhooker.
Henenlotter's sleazy re-imagining of the Mary Shelley classic is one of most ridiculous and fun films I've ever seen all the while keeping a subtext of morality in tow. It lacks the quantity of bloodshed Basket Case (1982) has, so fans of his previous films may feel somewhat underwhelmed as this film relies more upon laughs than a gore score.
So I ask, why haven't you fallen in love with a Frankenhooker?

Zibahkhana (2007)

2010-03-19T01:22:00.000Z

Omar Ali Khan's Pakistani splatterfest Zibahkhana also known as Hell's Ground.
I had this bought for me by a friend as a surprise and sure enough, a surprise it was as initially I didn't think it would be very good.

Zibahkhana's plot revolves around 5 students; Vicky, Simon, O.J., Ayesha and Roxy making their way to a concert.
On their journey they run in to a group a villagers who've been transformed in to zombies due to contaminated water. A minor subtext and possibly Omar Ali Khan's homage to Romero's signature and ever present social commentary. The group escapes and continues on their travels before getting lost and asking a drifter for directions, who turns out to be a complete nutcase. Successfully removing him from their van he then blocks it with his body forcing Vicky to ride over him, before long the van runs out of gas. Vicky then goes to a nearby house to get help, unbeknown to him the house is a trap to lure passersby. One by one the group begins to be stalked and butchered by a maniac, wearing a bloodstained burqa and wielding a giant medieval mace.

An incredibly entertaining flick to say the least, I found it difficult at times to wrap my head around the fact it originated from Pakistan. The acting was a pleasant surprise too as it's better than most Western indie flicks and all though you don't know a lot about the characters you do get a sense of attachment to them.
Shot on digital and thankfully missing the tackiness that usually comes with it and the use of a fish-eye lens reinforces the whole surreal atmosphere. The dialogue alternates between Urdu and English, possibly done to alleviate the use of subtitles. Amongst the graphic violence Omar Ali Khan manages to work in lines of comical dialogue and a few sequences that are either intentionally funny or accidentally come off as humorous. I'd also like to point out how awesome the soundtrack is and how memorable it makes the film.

Zibahkhana borrows heavily from a whole host of successful genre films, notably; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), the camper van accompanied by a lunatic hitchhiker. Friday the 13th Part II (1981), I base this on the similarity between the eye hole on the burqa and Jason's bag. The premise of them going to a concert also harks back to the likes of The Last House on the Left (1972).
A homage to the 80s splatter film that's well acted, well shot and most of all enjoyable. What more do you need?

A Decade of Dash & Slash

2010-03-18T22:57:00.006Z

A retrospect of the best and worst slasher films during the decade between 1974 and 1984. Within these years we saw the birth & development of horror franchises and anti-heroes turned pop culture icons.

Black Christmas (1974)
Director: Bob Clark
The proto Seasonal slasher and along with Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) is believed to be the most influential, with initiating the formulaic conventions for modern slasher films, an unknown killer with a history of abuse and more often than not a group of teenagers meeting their untimely demise in variously gruesome fashions.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Director: Tobe Hooper
A grand staple in the sub-genre once again reinforcing the faceless killer, also an early example of a weapon becoming synonymous with a killer. Hooper's effort is a realistic exploration in to the grimy underworld of a Texan family and their horrific exploits.

Halloween (1978)
Director: John Carpenter
Considered an unofficial sequel to Black Christmas with the similarities between the two stories; a psychotic returning home with no real background to their story. This is the film that really kick-started the boom and emphasizes the styles and techniques previously established by Clark. Adding to the success of Halloween was undoubtably Carpenter's simplistic yet moody musical score. As recognizable as Oldfield's Tubular Bells is with The Exorcist (1973).

The Toolbox Murders (1978)
Director: Dennis Donnelly
A trashy little picture that earned a place on the infamous Video Nasty list. A ski-masked killer à la Ted Bundy, who terrorizes people living in an apartment block with an assortment of tools. Features brutal murders but comes apart with terribly boring dialogue.

The Driller Killer (1979)
Director: Abel Ferrara
Yet another title that landed a spot on the Video Nasty list. Ferrara's seedy and downright grubby environment gives this film a unique atmosphere. Similar to Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) in the respect that, we the audience, watch the slow degradation of a mind. Grisly blood vessel-bursting deaths and grubby atmosphere make this a must.

Prom Night (1980)
Director: Paul Lynch
I struggle talking about this because, boring as it can be I really enjoy watching this film. Following a prank resulting in the death of a child, the other children swear to never tell anyone what happened. Years later they're in high school and someone has begun picking them off. An average, yet somehow underrated entry in to the sub-genre.

Terror Train (1980)
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Another underrated input from Canada, starring Jamie Lee Curtis probably down to her roles in both Halloween and Prom Night prior to this. A plot consisting of a humiliating prank, landing the victim in a psychiatric hospital. 3 Years later, the members of the fraternity are holding a costume party on a train. I personally thought the idea of the killer changing their costume throughout the film was interesting, including a terrifying Groucho Marx mask. Terror Train is one definitely worth checking out.

Friday the 13th (1980)
Director: Sean S. Cunningham
A simple plot concerning a group of teenagers who reopen a Summer camp that was previously abandoned after a young boy drowned in the camp's lake circa 1957. Soon after, one by one the teens are picked off by a mysterious killer. Friday the 13th was a major player the in the success of the sub-genre and one of the most profitable slasher flicks in cinema history. Starring a young Kevin Bacon in one of his earliest on-screen performances and special effects by Tom Savini.

Don't Go in the Woods (1981)
Director: James Bryan
Don't be fooled by the awesome poster art, the film is pitiful effort. Four young campers go back-packing in the mountains for a weekend away, to which they're stalked by a ridiculous looking killer who carriers a spear and picks off unwitting tourists. With the lack of suspense and dire acting, this one should have stayed banned.

Unhinged (1982)
Director: Don Gronquist
3 Girls get stranded at a creepy mansion, none of them can act, the script is awful and the direction is inexcusably worse. Somehow this managed to get banned too and just like Don't Go in the Woods, should have stayed that way. You can do without seeing this abysmal picture.

To be continued...

The Burning (1981)

2010-03-17T15:44:00.000Z

Tony Maylam's Summer Camp themed slasher The Burning.

Riding on the success of several previous slashers notably including Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980), the then newly formed Miramax Films (Bob & Harvey Weinstein) set out to capitalize on this boom with a budget of $1,500,000.

The Burning starts off at Camp Blackfoot with an innocent Summer camp prank going hideously wrong, ending with the camp's caretaker being set ablaze. A plot device revisited later in House on Sorority Row (1983). The prank itself involves a decomposing skull with candles stuck all over it being placed in Cropsy's room while he's asleep. Out of sheer terror he jolts up, knocking everything over causing the flames to come in contact with some flammable substances ultimately engulfing him in flames. Cropsy amazingly manages to survive this act and lands himself in hospital, the doctor's best efforts fail and he's left fuming (excuse my witty wordplay) and grotesquely disfigured. Needing to let off a little steam he goes and gets himself a hooker, who he kills before heading back to camp. C'mon, we all knew he would.
It's almost the end of camp and the kids are set to go on a rafting trip, all the while being stalked by a vengeful Cropsy. Let the body count ensue.

The Burning's story doesn't stray far from the summer camp slasher mold and without grisly effects work by Tom Savini it wouldn't have the cult status it currently treasures. Savini has stated that he considers this film to be some of his best work, rightly so too. In particular the infamous raft sequence in which Cropsy pops up with his garden shears and dispatches a group of 5 teens in quick succession, this in tow with the other kills is no doubt what granted The Burning it's Video Nasty status in the UK. Without a doubt it is the impressive kills that make this one of the most enjoyable 80s slashers.
By all means, The Burning isn't the gem we sometimes hype it up to be, sure it's up there with Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th, Part II & Part III but when compared to them it falls short, considerably with it's stop and start pacing, wooden acting and unfitting musical score by Rick Wakeman keyboardist of prog-rock band Yes.

Don't Answer the Phone! (1980)

2010-03-14T16:31:00.004Z

Robert Hammer's Don't Answer the Phone!
Starring: James Westmoreland, Flo Gerrish/Lawrence and Nicolas Worth.

I've read a lot of reviews and opinions online about Don't Answer the Phone! So many people rattle on about the bad acting and dated soundtrack, but so what if the acting is a little shabby and the score is a little dated? Aren't 99% of the films in this sub-genre? Besides that don't people regularly listen to music from the 70s and 80s? This is a grubby little picture that deserves a watch. Rant over.

Meet Kirk Smith (Worth), an unhinged Vietnam vet who enjoys photographing, stalking and strangling young women. It becomes apparent that the only identifiable justification for these crimes is the need to satisfy his psychotic misogynist urges. Kirk also likes to taunt psychologist Dr. Lindsay Gale (Gerrish) by calling in to her radio show, while his crimes are being investigated by Lt. Chris McCabe (Westmoreland) and Sgt. Hatcher (Ben Frank).

Throughout the film, similar to Frank Zito in Maniac (1980), we're given an insight into the killer's lifestyle and routine. The possibility of Kirk being a religious fanatic is hinted at, as there's a couple shots of him standing topless in a darkened room, grunting, beside a large illuminated crucifix, sadly this is never explained and as a result these sequences appear more comical than disturbing. Along with the menacing story there's some straight up comedy lines inserted into the script that ultimately fails and falls flat on it's unfunny face. Most of these lines are spouted by the wise-crackin' Police photographer.

Nicolas Worth's performance as the greasy strangler makes this film worth seeing alone, his sweaty on-screen appearance perfectly encapsulates the heat of the LA Sun.
Shame that the overall film turned out to be so bad as it has such a great premise to work with, not to say it doesn't have it's moments but they're few and far between. Ending up either forgotten or remembered as a poor man's Maniac.

Phenomena (1985)

2010-03-14T02:00:00.001Z

Dario Argento's Phenomena, edited for the US market under the title of Creepers.

The story revolves around Jennifer Corvino (Connelly), a girl who is a schizophrenic sleepwalker and has the ability to be able to communicate with insects via telepathy. Being the new girl at her school and sleepwalking the first night she's there gives her fellow peers ample ammunition to bully her. Parallel to that the pupils at the school are being terrorized by a psychotic assailant who decapitates their victims. These crimes are being investigated by one Inspector Rudolf Geiger (Patrick Bauchau) and his assistant Kurt, a cameo role by Michele Soavi.
Jennifer unsurprisingly befriends budding entomologist Prof. John McGregor (Pleasance) who has an intriguing little helper monkey. Serving as a possible inspiration for Romero's Monkey Shines (1988). Jennifer then sets out using her psychic ability to pursue the killer.

Phenomena appears to be Argento's attempt to amalgamate elements of De Palma's Carrie (1976) and any number of Gialli - a mix that sounds good in theory but doesn't quite come together so well on-screen, but at least it looks good.

Featuring a chilling performance from Daria Nicolodi, who plays Frau - the mother of a hideously deformed boy. Not to mention an equally good performance from an incredibly young Jennifer Connelly and Donald 'don't call me Dr. Loomis'Pleasance being...well Donald Pleasance. Memorable moments include a swimming pool full of maggots, gratuitous decapitations and of course a razor wielding monkey, standard. I'd also like to compliment the beautiful cinematography.
The soundtrack contains a musical score by Goblin and in contrast to that metal tracks by Iron Maiden and Motorhead, a theme Argento would later (overly) use in Opera (1987).

See this for the lunacy, please.

What Have You Done To Solange? (1972)

2010-03-11T20:50:00.025Z

Finally after much procrastination I finally got around to Massimo Dallamano's Cosa Avete Fatto a Solange? Starring: Fabio Testi, Cristina Galbó, Joachim Fuchsberger.

Reading countless reviews and hearing mostly good things, it struck me that this may not live up to the hype.
Thankfully, it did. It has everything a Giallo movie needs: a fantastic whodunnit plot, countless red herrings, nubile school girls and of course the black leather-gloved killer. Solange is definitely not a cash-in or generic clone.

Solange's plot involves Enrico (Testi), an Italian teacher working at an all-girl Catholic school in London. Spending an afternoon in a rowing boat on the Thames with Elizabeth (Galbó), one of his students whom he's having an affair with, Enrico wants to 'get down'. Suddenly Liz catches sight of a young girl running away from a mysterious figure coupled with the flash of a knife. She tells Enrico, who is quick to dismiss her claims, however later on over a news report, he discovers that Liz was in fact the witness to a murder of young girl. Soon after another girl is killed in the same manner which involves the victim being stabbed through the vagina. It eventually becomes clear that the victims are linked to a horrific event that occurred a year ago involving another girl, who mysteriously disappeared, Solange.
Enrico lies when initially questions on his whereabouts in regard to the first murder to avoid infuriating his wife and fellow schoolteacher Herta (Karin Baal). Throwing a spanner in the works with the possibility of Enrico's affair being brought to light when he is considered a suspect and sets out immediately to clear his name.

What Have You Done To Solange? is a well executed picture that really holds it's own when pitted against other early Gialli affairs like Argento's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970). The killer's POV sequences are so stylishly shot utilizing an obscure 'fish-eye' style, this camera work could serve as inspiration to that in Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974). The story also holds host to a few controversial topics including; criticism of the Catholic church which is frequently explored in the 2nd half of the film and sexual taboos. The age gap between Enrico and Elizabeth is questionable as is the exploration of killer's modus operandi, combining the penetration of stabbing with that of a sexual nature, leading me into a Freudian nightmare.
The performances from both Testi and Galbó are great. I'd also like to note that Camille Keaton's creepy portrayal of the emotionally damaged Solange is scarring, it's one of the reasons as to why this film lingers around in your mind for a while after you've finished watching it.

Aenigma (1987)

2010-03-10T18:56:00.000Z

It's that time again, tonight I am reviewing the late great Lucio Fulci's strange and often confusing Aenigma.

The film is set at a private all girls school, so with that in mind the cast is predominantly made up of 'teenage' girls. Some are bitchy, some are sweet and some are incredibly promiscuous with the local doctor and gym teacher.
In this interesting mix of peers, we have Kathy (Milijana Zirojevic). She's the daughter of the 'retarded' janitor and because of this it makes her different from the other girls so much so they have to pull a prank on her which lands her in a coma. Nice one.

In the comatose state...she...well I'm not sure what she does but I think she possess the new girl Eva (Lara Naszinsky, who also appeared in Lamberto Bava's A Blade In The Dark (1983)) who comes from a more privileged background. With this possession she is then able to act out her revenge upon her classmates.

Playing out like a bad version of Carrie (1976), to me Aenigma is lacking that special something which made previous Fulci films so enticing, especially musically as the scoring for this is so intolerably dull.
Visually this film is quite colourful in an Argento-esque sense, but gorehounds will be disappointed as there is surprisingly very little grue in this Fulci outing. The characters in the story are unlikable, probably due to the half assed acting.
On a plus, probably the only one, the locations for this movie are rather extravagant; marble floors and stone sculptures (which one of the unfortunate teens some how...gets attacked by).

As for the DVD release, this is as bare bones as it gets fans, I'm afraid this doesn't have any features at all. The transfer of the print is a little grainy, sound on the other hand is fine.

DVD: Image Entertainment
Running Time: 85 mins
Extras: None, which is good since the film is enough to endure.