Video Nasty #14
Absurd
1981
...BRUTAL!...SHOCKING!...VIOLENT!...SAVAGE!
...NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
Original Italian title: Rosso Sangue (translation: Blood Red)
aka: Horrible, Monster Hunter, Anthropophagus 2
NTSC Running time: 93:50
Directed by Aristide Massaccesi (as Peter Newton)
Written by Luigi Montefiore (as John Cart)
Produced by Donatella Donati and Massaccesi (as Joe D'Amato; he also takes credit for cinematography using the name Richard Haller.)
Starring: Luigi Montefiore (as George Eastman), Edmund Purdom, Katya Berger, Kasimir Berger, Annie Belle, Charles Borromel, Ted Rusoff
Body Count: 6
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD under the title Horrible from Mya Communications [although, like There Was A Little Girl (see Madhouse,Video Nasty #4), Horrible only appears on the disc and packaging. The print itself bears the original title, Rosso Sangue].
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Extreme gore murders.
What was cut: 2 minutes 32 seconds of unspecified cuts to the original cinema release, which was classified 18 on August 22, 1983.
Current UK Status: Absurd has never been submitted for video classification. It remains banned in the UK.
Absurd was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
I had been looking forward to seeing Rosso Sangue since I first heard about it in the late 1990s, but it was so hard to find at that time that I nearly forgot about it. Now, with an uncut DVD release that is easy to locate here in the states, I can see why the DPP went after this one...and why a murderous German black metal band took its' moniker from this film.
Absurd delivers the goods.
After white titles on a black screen, we find Mikos Stenopolis (Luigi Montefiore, the Anthropophagus Beast himself) running from another man (Edmund Purdom, whose next role was the college dean in Pieces) through the countryside. We intercut this with Katya and Willy Bennett (real-life siblings Katya and Kasimir Berger) and their babysitter. Katya is bedridden and wearing a neckbrace, though we are never told if this is an injury or an illness that's keeping her down. Meanwhile, Mikos tries to scale a wrought iron gate, but is impaled on the spikes at the top when his pursuer grabs his leg and pulls. The fence is, of course, the Bennett's, and Mikos soon bursts into the home, clutching a spill of his own entrails in a shot that recalls the end of Antropophagus. Mikos collapses. An ambulance is called.
In the operating room, the doctor is horrified to see that Mikos' body is healing itself on the operating table. The police begin investigating the strange man and his pursuer, who is soon revealed to be a Spanish priest (he is never named, referred to simply as Father). Upon exiting the operating room, the surgeon spouts. "This is absurd! It's just absurd!" regarding the remarkable physical properties of Mikos. It seems his blood coagulates at a much more rapid rate than any other human...which has driven him insane. He awakens, dispatches a nurse with a power drill to the head, dons his bloodsoaked clothes, and flees into the night to kill again!
That's just the opening. The murders are graphic, bloody and well done. Montefiore once again plays a silent madman from a Greek island who exists only to kill. The film soon becomes an homage/tribute/ripoff of Halloween, and of all the Halloween imitators I have seen, this is the best. I'd love to have a copy of the film's score by Carlo Maria Cordio, who worked with D'Amato and Lucio Fulci on several occasions, and also on one other Video Nasty, Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox. The music sounds like a collaboration between John Carpenter and Italian prog-rock quartet Goblin, and would work great for scaring the shit out of trick-or-treaters.
The cast features folks we'll be seeing more of: Annie Belle (who plays babysitter Emily) had at the time just filmed Ruggero Deodato's The House On The Edge Of The Park, which holds the record for Video Nasty With The Most Footage Cut By The BBFC (over 11 minutes!). Michele Soavi, who went on to become a writer/director of such films as Stagefright, The Church and Dellamorte Dellamore, has an uncredited role as a motorcyclist who is unfortunate enough to make Mikos' acquaintance. Soavi has similar small roles in Dario Argento's Nasty Tenebre (for which he also directed the second unit), Lucio Fulci's Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi and Lo Squartatore Di New York, among others (including the Italian sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, Alien 2: On Earth).
Mark Shannon and Lucia Ramirez, who can be seen in some of D'Amato's early porn efforts, including Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead, appear on a television program watched by Willy. I'm not sure if the footage comes from one of D'Amato's previous films (most likely) or if it was shot specifically for Rosso Sangue, but knowing that this eight-year-old boy is watching a show starring two porno actors made me laugh. Also regarding television, characters keep referring to the "big game" between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams, most likely Super Bowl XIV, which means the film opens on January 19, 1980, with the bulk of the action taking place on gameday, January 20, 1980. The fact that footage of the game appears in the film makes me wonder what percentage of the film's budget was given to the NFL to use it. (I'm sorry to say that the Steelers won that game, 31 to 19.)
The gore here is B. R. U. T. A. L. Mikos is a mad killing machine, using whatever is handy to dispatch whoever is unlucky enough to be near him. Fortunately for us in the audience, he is often near power tools and does not hesitate to use them. Mikos' silence and need to kill for no reason, his menacing of a babysitter and her charges, Father's obvious parallels to Dr. Loomis and how he teams with local law enforcement to stop the monstrous killer make it painfully obvious that much of the plot was stolen from Halloween, but where Carpenter's film is about suspense and jump-scares, Rosso Sangue is all about gore, and the whole thing is so well done that only the most die-hard purist fan of Halloween would take issue with the similarities. And D'Amato's cinematography is excellent, as always. Dean Cundey (who shot Halloween) used a more claustrophobic style, focusing more on details, which heightened the suspense. D'Amato frames his shots more like paintings, which lessens the suspense, but makes things a little more grandiose and overblown, which fits the tone of Rosso Sangue perfectly.
I highly recommend this one. I enjoyed it immensely and it stands as one of my favourite Nasties so far. If they were all this good, perhaps I'd be farther along in the list...but I did tell you all at the beginning that this would take a while, and I want to savour this experience like a piece of rare steak. However, maybe I should hurry it up a little. You never know when a crazed psychopath might break in, clutching a spill of his own entrails, and try to cut short my trip through these films. I think I'll keep a large axe handy. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
In the operating room, the doctor is horrified to see that Mikos' body is healing itself on the operating table. The police begin investigating the strange man and his pursuer, who is soon revealed to be a Spanish priest (he is never named, referred to simply as Father). Upon exiting the operating room, the surgeon spouts. "This is absurd! It's just absurd!" regarding the remarkable physical properties of Mikos. It seems his blood coagulates at a much more rapid rate than any other human...which has driven him insane. He awakens, dispatches a nurse with a power drill to the head, dons his bloodsoaked clothes, and flees into the night to kill again!
That's just the opening. The murders are graphic, bloody and well done. Montefiore once again plays a silent madman from a Greek island who exists only to kill. The film soon becomes an homage/tribute/ripoff of Halloween, and of all the Halloween imitators I have seen, this is the best. I'd love to have a copy of the film's score by Carlo Maria Cordio, who worked with D'Amato and Lucio Fulci on several occasions, and also on one other Video Nasty, Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox. The music sounds like a collaboration between John Carpenter and Italian prog-rock quartet Goblin, and would work great for scaring the shit out of trick-or-treaters.
The cast features folks we'll be seeing more of: Annie Belle (who plays babysitter Emily) had at the time just filmed Ruggero Deodato's The House On The Edge Of The Park, which holds the record for Video Nasty With The Most Footage Cut By The BBFC (over 11 minutes!). Michele Soavi, who went on to become a writer/director of such films as Stagefright, The Church and Dellamorte Dellamore, has an uncredited role as a motorcyclist who is unfortunate enough to make Mikos' acquaintance. Soavi has similar small roles in Dario Argento's Nasty Tenebre (for which he also directed the second unit), Lucio Fulci's Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi and Lo Squartatore Di New York, among others (including the Italian sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, Alien 2: On Earth).
Mark Shannon and Lucia Ramirez, who can be seen in some of D'Amato's early porn efforts, including Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead, appear on a television program watched by Willy. I'm not sure if the footage comes from one of D'Amato's previous films (most likely) or if it was shot specifically for Rosso Sangue, but knowing that this eight-year-old boy is watching a show starring two porno actors made me laugh. Also regarding television, characters keep referring to the "big game" between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams, most likely Super Bowl XIV, which means the film opens on January 19, 1980, with the bulk of the action taking place on gameday, January 20, 1980. The fact that footage of the game appears in the film makes me wonder what percentage of the film's budget was given to the NFL to use it. (I'm sorry to say that the Steelers won that game, 31 to 19.)
The gore here is B. R. U. T. A. L. Mikos is a mad killing machine, using whatever is handy to dispatch whoever is unlucky enough to be near him. Fortunately for us in the audience, he is often near power tools and does not hesitate to use them. Mikos' silence and need to kill for no reason, his menacing of a babysitter and her charges, Father's obvious parallels to Dr. Loomis and how he teams with local law enforcement to stop the monstrous killer make it painfully obvious that much of the plot was stolen from Halloween, but where Carpenter's film is about suspense and jump-scares, Rosso Sangue is all about gore, and the whole thing is so well done that only the most die-hard purist fan of Halloween would take issue with the similarities. And D'Amato's cinematography is excellent, as always. Dean Cundey (who shot Halloween) used a more claustrophobic style, focusing more on details, which heightened the suspense. D'Amato frames his shots more like paintings, which lessens the suspense, but makes things a little more grandiose and overblown, which fits the tone of Rosso Sangue perfectly.
I highly recommend this one. I enjoyed it immensely and it stands as one of my favourite Nasties so far. If they were all this good, perhaps I'd be farther along in the list...but I did tell you all at the beginning that this would take a while, and I want to savour this experience like a piece of rare steak. However, maybe I should hurry it up a little. You never know when a crazed psychopath might break in, clutching a spill of his own entrails, and try to cut short my trip through these films. I think I'll keep a large axe handy. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
I wrote this when I lived near Los Angeles, as I had done since being born. I now live in Pittsburgh, I love it, I disavow my disparaging remarks about the Steelers in the post above. How amazing that something I wrote about so many years ago featured two cities that are very important to my own life. I want to bring this blog back.
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