Third entry for the Film Diary; covering films I've watched within the span of a week, accompanied with a short review and rating. I will try to churn these out as quickly as possible, evidently there's never enough hours in the day to watch, write, and then format this for the blog. These reviews won't appear under the index of reviews as I prefer to keep that reserved for more lengthier entries.

Films watched between Monday 07/11/2022 and Sunday 13/11/2022.

Monday 07/11/2022
The Birds II: Land's End (1994)

Director: Rick Rosenthal credited as Alan Smithee

Attempting to make a sequel to a Hitchcock feature is always going to be unenviable or daring, but producing a made-for-TV sequel to a Hitchcock picture is almost unthinkable. To be completely honest, The Birds II: Land's End isn't an entirely terrible affair. It is when compared to its predecessor, but truthfully no worse than any more recent b movie schlock that you might find on the Sci-Fi Channel. It has some cool scenes, great explosions and cringeworthy, yet entertaining bird-attack sequences, but is hampered by abysmal pacing and vapid characters.



Tuesday 08/11/2022
A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse (1975)

Director: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi

Of all the films I watched this year, this is one of my favourites. Totally wild and bonkers with an indescribable plot that's sort of like a Kaibyō (supernatural/ghost cat) take on Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat. Beautifully shot; it's as colourful as an Argento flick, and thoroughly entertaining. It's not perfect, but if you dig zany movies with plenty of sleaze and feline absurdities, particularly those that originate from East Asia, do yourself a favour and check this one out.



Friday 11/11/2022
The Shiver of the Vampires / Le Frisson des Vampires (1971)

Director: Jean Rollin

Beautiful and dreamy in the way that Rollin's work often is, but I must confess that I didn't quite enjoy this much as I wanted to, nor as much as some of his other vampire themed work. It feels as though it's missing a crucial ingredient, only I can't discern what it is. It's full of the resplendent photography and lulling qualities you can expect from Rollin; I must revisit this again at a later date, and see if my opinion changes because I really wanted to love this. Also, the Acanthus soundtrack is outstanding; unique and memorable, a work unto itself.



Saturday 12/11/2022
Hostel (2005)

Director: Eli Roth

The first of two Roth films in this weeks diary. I sat down to watch this with Emily at her request. Instrumental in spawning and canonising the term "torture porn", fathering two sequels, and inspiring many imitators, yet surprisingly Hostel isn't near as visceral as one would imagine. It still packs a wallop and Roth could have easily gone much further with the content in certain scenes. Filled to the brim with badly-aged lowbrow bro humour, reprehensible characters, and a commentary on the thrills, ills, and spills of sex tourism. I can distinctly remember when this came out, it was the same year as Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects (2005) and a younger gore-hungry me thoroughly enjoyed both.



Sunday 13/11/2022
Blue Ice (1985)

Director: Phillip Marshak

Emily and I have started something that we like to call "Sex film Sunday", it's as self-explanatory as one could imagine. Not the first X film we've watched together; that would be Bob Chinn's comical Hot & Saucy Pizza Girls (1978). Blue Ice sees a Private investigator hired to locate and procure an ancient book, unbeknownst to him a group of escaped Nazis are also out to find the artefact, as it holds the power to turn any woman into a nymphomaniac. Nicely shot and edited; it features a Lynchian "blue light " sequence that appears during the finale that appears to take place outside of the films reality. I dug it; driven in equal measure by the plot and the sex scenes, its brisk 86 minute runtime moves along at a steady pace. Featuring minor roles from 42nd Street Cinema fave Jamie Gillis and a young, but recently disgraced, Ron Jeremy. If peepin' is your thing, peep this.



Sunday 13/11/2022
Cabin Fever (2002)

Director: Eli Roth

Following up our small foray into Roth-territory, Emily and I checked out his first feature film. It's a well-paced, slickly edited and stomach churning-ly gruesome effort about a highly contagious flesh eating disease and a group of obnoxious youths. Unfortunately some of the bro-humour and dialogue choices haven't aged too well; this is also evident in Hostel (2005), but don't be deterred, if for whatever reason you've never seen Cabin Fever check it out. There's plenty of wince-inducing scenes, brought on by queasy effects and character lines like:

Karen: Bert, what the hell is that?
Bert: Huh? Oh, I'm gonna go shoot some squirrels.
Paul: Why would you wanna kill squirrels?
Bert: 'cause they're gay.
Karen: Bert, don't be a fucking retard.
Bert: I'm kidding. I don't care if they're gay or straight, I'll kill 'em either way..

I remember being so confused when a remake was announced and actually came out in 2016, watch it if you like, but it doesn't get a glowing recommendation here, and the less said the better about the sequels, perhaps save for Ti West's Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009), I have a bit of a soft spot for that one.

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 the arthouse crowd will eat this up.

I thought I would switch things up a bit and tackle a double bill of Vicente Aranda's The Blood Spattered Bride (1972) and Luigi Batzella's The Beast In Heat (1977). The Blood Spattered Bride Starting off a little like a kitsch Hammer flick, I quickly began to feel the warmth and familiarity I feel when watching European films of this era. Starring Simon Andreu and Maribel Martin as a newlywed couple. It is clear that Susan (Martin) is having trouble adjusting to married life and is becoming scared of her husband and his increasing sexual dominance and violent ways. She soon begins to believe that she is being visited by a spectral Mircalla Karstein (Alexandra Bastedo) who 200 years ago murdered her husband. She also happens to be a descendant of Susan's husband. Now Mircalla wants Susan to take a page out of her book and kill her husband. Apologies if that is extremely convoluted, Simon Andreu's character is simply referred to as 'The Husband'. The Blood Spattered Bride deals with misogyny, virginity and lesbianism through metaphor, without it really becoming tasteless and sleazy. A scene worth of a note; when Susan is first 'visited' by Mircalla Karstein and given the dagger, the entire sequence has a strobe effect adding a real dreamlike quality to it. It also ends with Mircalla kissing Susan in what would appear to be a vampiric manner introducing a supernatural element to the story. The film's plot has some minor gaps in logic which are easily overlooked and aided by sublime climax. Coupled with exquisitely dreary mise en scene and a picturesque autumnal backdrop, atmosphere is something this film doesn't fall short on. A stylish, tasteful, slightly janky paced entry into the Euro horror genre. A film that will continue to gain fans year in, year out. DVD: Blue Underground Running Time: 101 Mins Extras: U.S. Combo Theatrical Trailer The Beast In Heat A film from the morally bankrupt niche sub-genre, Nazisploitation. And a film which harbours a number of the most ridiculous scenes ever committed to celluloid. Within the first 5 minutes we see The Beast (Salvatore Baccaro) doing his thing to an unlucky female prisoner. The plot is absurd to the max, a female doctor within the Nazi war machine has created a neanderthal man-beast sex fiend who bonks victims to death. I still can't fathom how creating an aphrodisiac laced throwback fits in with the larger picture of world domination, but what do I know. Working against the scientific abomination and his cruel mistress, Officer/Doctor Ellen Kratsch (Macha Magall), are a group of resistance soldiers who intend on overthrowing their town's occupation. The film is unfortunately runs at a snails pace and the promise of something gruesome are very much few and far between. Featuring poor set pieces and drab cinematography, it ranks low. If you're into cinematic oddities and Nazi war crimes, you've likely already endured The Beast In Heat. DVD: Exploitation Digital (Shriek Show) Running Time: 86 Mins Extras: Photo Gallery, Trailer and Shriek Show Trailers.