Wednesday, November 30, 2011

How To Create An Urban Legend.

Video Nasty #20

THE PICTURE THEY SAID COULD NEVER BE SHOWN...


Snuff
1976

THE BLOODIEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED IN FRONT OF A CAMERA!!




THE FILM THAT COULD ONLY BE MADE IN SOUTH AMERICA...WHERE LIFE IS CHEAP!


Original Film: The Slaughter (1971)

NTSC Runtime: The Slaughter - 74:19;  Snuff - 5:33.  Total NTSC Runtime: 79:52

The Slaughter
Written and Directed by Michael Findlay
Produced by Jack Bravman
Cinematography by Roberta Findlay
Starring: Mirtha Massa, Clao Villanueva, Enrique Larratelli, Aldo Mayo, Margarita Amuchastegui

Snuff
Directed by Simon Nuchtern
Produced by Allan Shackleton

Body Count: The Slaughter - 15; Snuff - 1.  Total Body Count: 16

US Availability: Uncut Region 0 DVD from Blue Underground.

BBFC Status

Why it's a Nasty: Gore.  And hype.  Lots and lots of hype.
What was cut: No cuts, though the film was banned as a Nasty.
Current UK status: The uncut version of Snuff was awarded an 18 certificate on May 22, 2003...although the film has yet to see an "official" UK release.
UK Availability: Uncut Region 0 DVD from Blue Underground.
Snuff was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.

Confused by the credits up there?  Good.  You should be, or Snuff isn't doing its' job.  I would like to note that all of the footage in the trailer above is from The Slaughter, not Snuff.

Most of us have heard the urban legend of the "snuff film" by now.  If you haven't, it's pretty simple: a "snuff film" is a genuine murder perpetrated on camera for the explicit purpose of making money off of the film.  No such film has ever turned up, anywhere, ever.  Yes, death has been captured on film before, be it historical records of executions (Saddam Hussein, for example), accidental (news footage of 9/11, the Zapruder film), a private record of a monster's crimes (Russell Williams), or televised suicide (Christine Chubbuck, R. Budd Dwyer).  But as a for-profit filmmaking venture, the snuff film does not exist.  It's great as a plot device for horror and thriller films, but the reality is that it just wouldn't be worth the trouble.  It's easier (and also, legal) to just make pornography.  Snuff films do not exist.  But if that's the case, why is the myth so persistent?

It all starts with this film.

In 1971, Michael and Roberta Findlay, a husband/wife filmmaking team headed down to Argentina and shot a cheap movie loosely based on the Manson Family murders.  Titled The Slaughter, it's a cheapjack ($30,000) flick that doesn't have much going for it.  The murders are poorly done, mostly gunshots and stabbings with minimal gore.  There is some nudity and minimal sex, but if the measurement of success in cinematic sex is the stimulation of the viewer, then the sexual scenes of The Slaughter are failures.  (Interestingly, my wife was listening without watching when I began the film and thought that the opening sequence of violence was pornography based on the sound.  If you take a look at Michael Findlay's filmography, he specialized in "roughies", an early exploitation genre that emphasized violence during, and sometimes replacing, sex..)  The Slaughter had a very small theatrical run (something like three theatres played it), and is a disjointed and poorly written mess (although the cinematography is good), with many of the trademarks of low-budget films: no on-location soundtrack, shoddy editing and acting, terrible special effects, and overuse of "event" footage because a) they had it, and b) it pads the running time (in this case, the event is carnivale), a technique that reached it's zenith (or nadir) in another Nasty, Bruno Mattei's Zombie Creeping Flesh.

In specifics, The Slaughter is about a cult leader called Satan (pronounced "suh-TAHN") and his four-girl army of killers.  They want to kill the child of a German rich kid named Horst for reasons that are never explained.  It's just an excuse to have them kill a pregnant woman because that's what the Manson Family did.  The Slaughter ends with an attack on Horst's mansion by Satan's girls.

At least, I think it does.  I've never seen the end of it, and no one seems to recall what happens after Angelica (Margarita Amuchastegui) stabs the pregnant belly of Terri (Mirtha Massa) in the original cut of the film.  Just how does it end?  (Seriously, if anyone out there has the skinny on that, shout it out in the comments down there, I would really love to know.)

The reason we don't know (and the reason we're even talking about this at all) is due to yet another unscrupulous distributor, in this case a guy named Allan Shackleton.  Time for a bit of history.

In the early days of cinema, "personal hygiene" films traveled the American landscape.  Kroger Babb went across country with sensationalized melodramas like Mom And Dad and She Shoulda Said "No!".  Shown to sexually segregated audiences under the guise of "educational films", each screening was presented by "Elliot Forbes", who gave lectures to the audience about STDs (in the case of Mom And Dad), or whatever evil menace the films were demonizing, selling printed matter on the subject to the audience to boot.  This was before there was a television in every home, everyone in town saw these things.  And it wasn't one town at a time, either.  There'd be dozens of towns in different areas featuring the show at once, each with its' own "Elliot Forbes" (with the exception of theatres in predominantly black neighborhoods.  In that case, you got Jesse Owens.  I'm not kidding, it really was Olympic runner Jesse Owens).  Admissions were twenty-five cents, with the informative brochures sold at the shows going for another fifty cents.  The total take per town per week sometimes went as high as $32,000.  You do the math.  Babb made a mint.

Mom And Dad is a film about the dangers of not giving your children proper sex education.  It's a melodrama about the dangers of unprotected sex, like teen pregnancy and venereal disease...which was an excuse to show footage of a birth and disease-ridden sexual organs.  The film was wildly successful and did huge business.  It was a gimmick, designed to "exploit" the unique material the film presented.  Voila!  Exploitation film was born.  (Mom And Dad was not the first such film...but it was the most successful, eventually taking somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100,000,000 over its' 30-year run through theatres and drive-ins.)

The "personal hygiene" film eventually gave way to burlesque films, nudie-cuties, roughies, and so on.  A producer named David F. Friedman got his start playing "Elliot Forbes" with a traveling Mom And Dad show.  He went on to make (you guessed it) exploitation films, teaming up on several occasions with Herschell Gordon Lewis.  Friedman's name is on two Nasties: Blood Feast and Love Camp 7, both as producer and actor, and he came out of retirement to re-team with Lewis in the early 21st century to exploit (there's that word again) nostalgia for their early gore films with some new sequels to both Blood Feast and 2000 Maniacs (although they sadly did not revisit their nudie-cutie days and resurrect Lucky Pierre).  Friedman is often quoted as saying "Sell the sizzle, not the steak", meaning that success in the world of exploitation films meant that most of the work was done before anyone saw the film being promoted.

Allan Shackleton knew what Friedman did: That what is actually in the film doesn't matter as much as what you make people think is in the film.  It is that "carnival barker" mentality that has produced some of the most memorable exploitation movies of all time, and Shackleton gave Snuff a place in that pantheon.

Shackleton had acquired the rights to The Slaughter through his Monarch Distribution company.  But he didn't know what to do with it...until a naive acquaintance mentioned the film and mistook it for something it wasn't: genuine.  Shackleton played up the idea, though he never came right out and said anything in the picture was real.  He started putting out press releases, promoting his acquisition as a bona-fide South American atrocity (remember, the Findlay's shot The Slaughter in Argentina with local talent).  Michael Findlay got wise to Shackleton right away, recognizing the film the distributor was alluding to was his own.  After nearly blowing the secret in an interview, Shackleton paid Findlay to keep quiet and kept promoting.  He hired director Simon Nuchtern to shoot a fake murder that would appear to be genuine, then tacked it on to the end of The Slaughter, removed all credits aside from the opening title card, and retitled the whole thing as Snuff.  (Please note, if you have not already, that I do not consider this one film, but two, and when I refer to Snuff I am discussing only the fake murder footage shot at Shackleton's behest.)

Shot in 1975 over the course of one afternoon in Carter Stevens' porn studio for $10,000 (a third of The Slaughter's entire budget), Snuff shows what purports to be the crew of The Slaughter finishing up for the day.  The "director" and a female crew member start whispering about how the gory scene they just shot turned them on.  He suggests they have sex on one of the beds and she (as only a woman in a 1970s exploitation film would) agrees, as long as the others are leaving.  The crew instead keeps filming, the "director" produces a knife, and the woman is killed in a brutally gory fashion.  But my (nor any) description will not replace the actual experience of seeing if for yourself.  So click the link below.  It leads to a very informative discussion of the sequence (referred to in that article as "The Snuff Coda"), particularly regarding the female crewmember who is helping with the murder.  It also contains Snuff in its' entirety.  I urge you to click the link and see the film.  Snuff is the real attraction, and I offer it here so that you may satisfy your curiosity without having to sit through The Slaughter to see it.  After all, this is why we bought our tickets, right?

Snuff

The first 11 seconds of that clip is the last bit of The Slaughter that we see, the remaining 5:33 is the whole of Snuff.  As you can see, it is obviously faked.  Not only is it easy to see past the illusion of the effects, but any genuine snuff film would have to be done in one take, which this is not.  Multiple camera angles and cuts belie the truth: this is a staged event done with a realistic flavor.  But that doesn't matter.  Shackleton's work was done.  The film was released to a furor of protest, first from planted picketers paid by Shackleton, then from genuinely outraged citizens who didn't stop to realize that if the film was indeed real it wouldn't be shown in commercial theatres.  (But hey, it was the 70s, they were probably to high on coke to do much thinking anyway.)  The film made money, became notorious, and cemented the notion that sleazebags with cameras will kill innocent girls for black market profit.

And that's how you create an urban legend.  35 years later, people still think such films exist.  Show Snuff to a friend.  See if you can make them think it's real.  Be your own exploitation producer and keep the game alive.  Sell the sizzle, not the steak.

It's been lovely spending time with you again.  I hope you are happy, safe, and well.  And even though we're sure these movies aren't real, I'd still avoid balding guys in "VIDA ES MUERTE" t-shirts.  Best to be on the safe side.  And that's advice I'll follow.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Friday, October 14, 2011

A Father's Love Makes His Son A Monster!

Video Nasty #19


AN ORGY OF TERROR!

Night Of The Bloody Apes
1969






HALF MAN, HALF BEAST, ALL HORROR!

Original title: La Horripilante Bestia Humana
Also known as: Horror y Sexo
NTSC Running time: 83:46
Directed by Rene Cardona, with additional scenes directed by Jerald Intrator
Written by Rene Cardona & Rene Cardona, Jr.
Produced by Guillermo Calderon and Alfredo Salazar
Starring: Jose Elias Moreno, Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, Armando Silvestre, Norma Lazareno
Body Count: 11, plus a gorilla.  (It's a guy in a suit, maybe the worst film gorilla I've ever seen.)
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD from Something Weird Video (as a double feature with Feast Of Flesh)

BBFC Status

Why it's a Nasty: Sexual assaults and (what else?) gore.
What was cut: Unspecified cuts were made to the original cinema version (certified X on March 26, 1974).  Subsequent video versions certified 18 on May 19, 1999 and again on June 24, 2002 were pre-cut before being submitted for classification.
Current UK Status: An uncut Region 2 DVD from Redemption was rumored to be released in 2007 uncut...although the BBFC hasn't certified the uncut version and it is not listed on the Redemption website.  The reviews I have found of the Redemption DVD (of which there were two) were written before the alleged release
Availability: 18 certified version on Region 2 DVD from Film 2000.  The Redemption disc appears to have been mooted.
Night Of The Bloody Apes was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.

Remember that Christian Slater movie where he had a baboon's heart?  This is what really happened.
When Dr. Krallman (Jose Elias Moreno) learns that his son's condition is inoperable...he decides the time is right for an operation!  Meanwhile, wrestler Lucy Ossorio (Norma Lazareno) critically injures her opponent by tossing her from the ring.  Julio Krallman (Agustin Martinez Solares) survives his father's radical procedure, his body accepting the heart of an ape, stolen from the local zoo.  Heading up the zoo investigation: Lucy's boyfriend, Lieutenant Arturo Martinez (Armando Silvestre).  The cops think the gorilla is still on the loose.  But what's really out there is much more horrifying: Julio, with an apeface and a raging, confused libido, transformed into a beast by his father's medical meddling!

Julio prowls the streets, murdering men and clumsily attempting to mate with women, an enterprise he doesn't seem to be any good at.  (He may succeed at one point, but we don't see it and the victim [understandably] doesn't mention it.)  His father's English-dubbed voice keeps calling him "Joo-lee-oh", which is laughable for its' ignorance.  There's lots of terrible gore and gratuitous nudity, apparently shot for foreign markets like the US by Jerald Intrator.  And without those elements, there would really be no reason to watch it...unless you love wrestling that much.

The wrestling isn't anything spectacular, but I'm sure it was more than adequate for the Mexican audiences of 1969, who devoured anything that featured the sport.  Cardona had done well earlier in the decade with Las Luchadoras Contra La Momia (Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy), and before that he pitted Santa Claus against The Devil Himself in 1959's Santa Claus.  Campy, campy.

Is there anything special about this film?  Not really.  It's a rehash of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with gore, girls and gorillas.  Fun and unintentionally funny, but I can't quite bring myself to recommend this one.  If you think John Waters has refined taste, you'll love it.

These older ones don't give me a whole lot to say.  Three releases by Something Weird, and only the first (Blood Feast - see Video Nasty #1) gave me enough literary fuel for a decent entry.  I'm not a huge fan of the 1960s.  It's like looking at a junior high annual: it got you where you are now, but that doesn't mean you need to revisit it.  There's one more from that odd decade on the list...but it's a doozy: Love Camp 7, a Nazisploitation film that a fellow Nasty completist has rated as the Nastiest Nasty of them all.  I can't wait.  Bring it.

In other news, the BBFC has rejected another recent torture-themed film, The Bunny Game, for classification of any kind.  While The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) has been passed at 18 after several cuts, appeals and addressing the issue of cuts for The Bunny Game has yet to transpire.  Further bulletins as we get 'em.

Until next time, if you run into a guy with a horrible scar on his bare chest who looks and sounds just like a monkey, I recommend stabbing until he stops.  Paranoia is always there for you.  And so am I.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

A Modern Giallo...And The Loss Of A Legend.

Two nights ago, I curled up in bed and watched Amer (French for "bitter"), a giallo-inspired nightmare with very little dialogue and stunning visuals.  The film is broken into three sections, one for each stage of the protagonist's life.  We meet Ana as a girl of about 8, living a terrified existence in a sprawling estate with her mother, father, the mysterious Graziella...and two corpses.  We meet her again in adolescence, walking into town with her cold-blooded mother, as her awareness of sexuality awakens.  The second half of the film concerns Ana's return to the family estate, now fallen into disrepair, as a black-gloved figure begins to stalk the grounds.

From the above description, I wouldn't be surprised if you underestimate this film.  The story is almost nonexistent, and the lack of dialogue only enhances the dreamlike, unnerving qualities.  Bright colors, extreme closeups, muddled motivations, zero exposition - Amer is not like any other film, though it does pay homage to the best of giallo cinema.  The oversaturated colors of Argento, the woman who knows too much of Bava, the too-close closeups of Fulci (including a knowing wink to the razor murder of Daniela Doria's character The New York Ripper).  It's well worth seeking out, a truly unique cinematic experience.



Around the same time I was enjoying Amer, we lost a great artist.  Musician and actor David Hess passed away October 7, 2011 at the age of 69.  Star of two Video Nasties (The Last House On The Left and House On The Edge Of The Park), Hess began his career under the name David Hill, his first single was "All Shook Up", a year before Elvis Presley scored a #1 hit with the same song.  This was not the only time in his career that Hess would originate a song that found later success with another artist: Pat Boone landed near the top of the charts performing "Speedy Gonzales", a track first recorded and co-written by Hess (this time under the nom de rock David Dante).  He continued to record music for the rest of his life, composing and performing the music for Last House, and contributing to the soundtrack of Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, as well as non-soundtrack work, his most recent release being Caught Up In The Moment.  He was slated to appear in Ruggero Deodato's sequel to House On The Edge Of The Park next year.

Here's a sample of his work, "Now You're All Alone" from The Last House On The Left soundtrack:



David Alexander Hess: 1942 - 2011.  May he rest in peace.

It's been a while since I've had time to screen a Nasty and I'm starting to get the itch.  I'll write more soon, I promise.  Until we meet again, it would be wise for us all to sing.  It might keep the darkness away, so I suggest we do it as much as we can.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Zombie Flesh Eaters: Coming Soon To A Theatre Near You!!!

Get up, kids!  William "Maniac" Lustig and the rest of the good folks over at Blue Underground are unleashing Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 in select theatres in the US and Canada later this month for midnight showings!  These are very limited engagements (one or two shows per theatre), so don't miss your chance to see it on the big screen.

Click here for details!

I wish I was near Albuquerque, NM; Chicago, IL or San Francisco, CA: all three are having screenings on my birthday!  I'm going to try to make it to the New Beverly for the October 22nd screening.  Hope to see you there!  So keep on the lookout, we don't want to lose each other in the crowd, and I'll keep a sharp eye out for you.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Monday, September 12, 2011

The War Is Over...But The Need To Eat Flesh Remains!

Video Nasty #18

Cannibal Apocalypse
1980



POWs IN VIETNAM...STARVED IN CAPTIVITY...RELEASED WITH A TASTE FOR HUMAN FLESH.





DON'T SCREAM...YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE.

Original Italian title: Apocalypse Domani
Other alternate titles: Cannibals In The Streets, Invasion Of The Flesh Hunters
NTSC Running time: 96:07
Directed by Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony M. Dawson)
Story by Dardano Sacchetti (as Jimmy Gould)
Screenplay by Margheriti and Sacchetti (as Dawson and Gould)
Produced by Edmondo, Maurizio & Sandro Amati
Starring: John Saxon, Elizabeth Turner, Giovanni Lombardo Radice (as John Morghen), Cinzia De Carolis (as Cindy Hamilton), Tony King, Wallace Wilkinson, Ramiro Oliveros
Body Count: 25, plus a dog and a rat.  (The dog was not actually harmed.  The rat, we're not sure.)
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD available from Image Entertainment.

BBFC Status

Why it's a Nasty: Cannibalism!...and animal cruelty.
What was cut: A cut of two seconds to a rat that caught fire.
Current UK Status: Cannibal Apocalypse was awarded an 18 certificate on May 11, 2005 after the shot of the rat on fire had been excised.  The same version was again awarded an 18 certificate on March 15, 2010.
Availability: 18 certified version available on Region 2 DVD and online from Optimum Releasing.
Cannibal Apocalypse was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.

When sitting down to watch a film titled Cannibal Apocalypse, would you expect an allegory about the horrors of war and post-traumatic stress syndrome?

Because that's what you get.

We open in the jungles of Vietnam, where Norman Hopper (John Saxon) is leading a battalion into a Viet Cong base, where POWs Tommy Thompson (Tony King) and Charles Bukowski (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) are being held.  When a Vietnamese woman catches fire and falls into the POW's holding pit, the two soldiers quickly tear her apart and feast upon her.  Once the smoke clears, Hopper recognizes the two men and extends a hand to them, meaning to pull them out, but getting an armful of teeth...

And Hopper awakes from his nightmare next to his wife, Jane (Elizabeth Turner), a television host with serious concerns about her husband's well-being.  She seeks out Dr. Phil Mendez (Ramiro Oliveros), who tells Jane that a) she should have married him instead of Hopper, and b) Hopper is better off than Bukowski and Thompson who are still in a mental institution.  Or not, since Bukowski has just been granted a daypass out into the city.

Charlie wants to meet up with his good friend Hopper, have a few beers, discuss old times, but Norman isn't in the mood.  In addition to his nightmares (in which Charlie features prominently), he's dealing with the girl next door, Mary (Cinzia De Carolis), a teenage nymphet who is in the midst of failing to seduce Norman when his old war buddy calls.  Norman hangs up on Bukowski and seems about to give in to Mary's advances (shame on you, Norman!), but, as he later confesses to his wife, what he's really thinking is how much he'd like to take a bite out of Mary.

Bukowski heads to the movies, where he sits down for a screening of Umberto Lenzi's From Hell To Victory.  He's enjoying his popcorn when the couple in front of him gets into a heavy makeout session.  The girl's boyfriend is nibbling on her breasts, and Charlie flashes back to when he took a bite from the same part of that Vietnamese lady's anatomy.  Unable to control himself, Bukowski leans forward and takes a healthy chunk from the girl's neck.  Chased from the theatre, he holes up in a flea market and starts shooting people...

So begins Cannibal Apocalypse.  It's brutal.  It's violent.  It's not for the faint of heart.  There's all kinds of gunfire and flesh-eating, with a police captain trying to make sense of all the carnage throughout.  When this Captain McCoy (Wallace Wilkinson) arrives on the scene of Bukowski's flea market standoff, he delivers a line you won't see in the movies anymore.  "I don't care about his name!  What's his background?  Is he a subversive, a queer, a commie, a black?"  It's apparent as we get to know him better that he's not a racist or a bigot, just a harsh-talking cop who wants things boiled down into neat little packages.  Too bad he's not ready for a cannibal plague.

Made during the height of Italy's Cannibal Boom, a short-lived but impressive trend that saw most of its' films on the Nasties list, Cannibal Apocalypse took the flesh-eating out of the jungles and into the streets of Atlanta, where much of the film was shot.  Instead of primitive tribes, the anthropophagists here are ordinary citizens, afflicted by a kind of rabies they picked up in 'Nam.  Whether the result of chemical warfare or some other source, the film doesn't explore the cause.  It doesn't need to.  The soldiers who have returned home are cursed with the horrors of their time in the war, post-traumatic stress disorder made into a literal, physical ailment.  Tommy and Charlie cannot help themselves, their need to eat their fellow man has overridden everything else in their lives.  It's an intriguing idea, and one the film could have explored more deeply...if Margheriti and Sacchetti weren't so intent on fitting in as much carnage as possible.  And boy, do they deliver!

There's plenty of names here that we'll be seeing again.  Giovanni Lombardo Radice appears in three Nasties, we'll be seeing him again in Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox and Ruggero Deodato's House On The Edge Of The Park.  John Saxon has a great supporting role in Dario Argento's Tenebre.  And Dardano Sacchetti may be the King Of The Nasties, with screenplay credits on FIVE of the seventy-two (the others are The House By The Cemetery [see Video Nasty #3], The Beyond, Blood Bath, and Zombie Flesh Eaters, on which he went uncredited in order to give his wife a screen credit and facilitate further work).  And in a bit of meta-fiction, actress May Heatherly (who also appears in Pieces) appears in Cannibal Apocalypse as Helen and in From Hell To Victory, the film Bukowski sees in the cinema.  Spooky!

And while the BBFC may have loosened its' restrictions on the cinematic depiction of cannibalism, they are still not too keen on cruelty to animals.  The two second shot shorn from this film takes place in the final reel, during a chase through the sewers, where Tommy blasts his flamethrower onto some rats, one of which scurries into the water upon being engulfed in flames.  Did the rat survive?  Most likely, as it jumps into the water, dousing the flames, and those are some resilient little fuckers.  (Remember my little rat problem last year?  Yeah, I wasn't too sad to see one catch fire, but if it survived, good on it.)  Other than that short and insignificant shot, UK viewers can now easily catch this one...and I hope they do.  This is a fun movie that had no trouble holding my attention.

It's a shame that John Saxon, who was rather disgusted by the concept but already contractually obligated to appear by the time he found out, has claimed to have never seen it and been totally okay with its' one-time UK ban.  John, if you're reading this, I urge you to reconsider and give it a chance.  Your performance was great, you did a terrific job of capturing Hopper's haunted, troubled psyche, especially at the end, and you should be proud to have Cannibal Apocalypse on your resume.  Give it a shot.  You won't be disappointed.

And that's it for now, my friends.  I'll catch you soon enough, though probably not as soon as either of us would like.  I've got some new projects percolating, including a trip through bloody darkness with a mad genius known only as The Phantom.  I can't give you any details yet, it's super top secret, but you can rest assured that when the feral cat leaps from the burlap sack, it will land squarely on this page, claws outstretched...and hungry.  Until next time, steer clear of quiet men in camouflage jackets.  They're probably harmless...but they might also be wondering what you taste like.  I'll think twice if they cross my path.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Happy Anniversary To The Rebellion!

After thinking, planning and researching for a very long time, this blog was begun one year ago today.  While I am not as far along as I would have thought when I began, I am still proud to be doing this.

In one year, we've screened 17 films:
BLOOD FEAST
FACES OF DEATH
THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY
MADHOUSE
MARDI GRAS MASSACRE
BLOODY MOON
THE BOGEYMAN
REVENGE OF THE BOGEYMAN
DEATH TRAP
DON'T GO NEAR THE PARK
UNHINGED
THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI
ANTHROPOPHAGUS THE BEAST
ABSURD
BLOOD RITES
THE BEAST IN HEAT
THE BURNING
and we've covered (in brief or in depth) a few others:
GIALLO
EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD
PIECES

So it's time to stop looking back and start looking forward.  Here are a few of the things I've got planned for the second year of the Rebellion:
A look at a few films that didn't make the list, but were their own kind of Nasties:
MANIAC
THE NEW YORK RIPPER
THE EXORCIST
Plus, a special feature on an entire series (and homages to it): THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE!
(I had also been planning on a special screening of FOREST OF FEAR on September 11, 2011 as a tribute to Charles McCrann, but trouble obtaining an uncut print has doused my hopes for that.)

And, of course, we will continue to work our way through the DPP list.  Coming up soon:
KILLER NUN
NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN
DELIRIUM
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
LATE NIGHT TRAINS
NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES
THE DRILLER KILLER
and more Video Nastiness than you can shake a severed arm at!

So thanks for reading, thanks for sticking with me, and most of all, thanks for existing.

My name's Justin.  JustinCase.

PS - Find VCR Rebellion on Facebook and tell 'em Justin sent ya!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Disfigured By Fire...And Back For Revenge!

Video Nasty #17

The Burning
1981

A LEGEND OF TERROR IS NO CAMPFIRE STORY ANYMORE!





A BRUTAL HORRIFIC ACT MADE HIM KILL AND KILL AND KILL






IT WILL TAKE YOU FURTHER THAN FEAR.


GATHER AROUND THE CAMPFIRE TO DIE!

NTSC Running time: 91:22
Directed by Tony Maylam
Story by Harvey Weinstein, Tony Maylam & Brad Grey
Screenplay by Peter Lawrence & Bob Weinstein
Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein
Horror Sequence Designer & Special Make-Up Effects by Tom Savini
Starring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayers, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua & Lou David as Cropsy
Body Count: 10
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD from MGM

BBFC Status

Why it's a Nasty: Intense sequences of gore!  There is at least one shot of blood on breasts, which the BBFC says is a big no-no.
What was cut: The original UK cinema release was cut by 10 seconds during the prostitute murder and the raft massacre.  When the film was finally certified 18 for video on October 16, 1992, an additional 9 seconds were removed, cutting more of the raft massacre and removing the bloody boobs as mentioned above.
Current UK status: The uncut version of The Burning was certified 18 on August 14, 2002.
UK Availability: Uncut Region 2 DVD available from Blackhorse Entertainment.
The Burning was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.

A lot of early 1980s slasher films can boast having a future star or two.  The Burning probably holds the record.

The very first production from Miramax films (notice those ever-present Weinstein Bros. up there?), it was the feature film debut of Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens and Holly Hunter.  One of the co-writers wrote episodes of cartoons from my youth ("Thundercats" and "Silverhawks").  Another became head of Paramount Pictures.  The director is still working, but mostly in documentaries.  And Tom Savini...well, Tom was already horror royalty when The Burning went before the cameras, having just finished Friday The 13th and Maniac.  Savini, in fact, turned down Friday The 13th Part 2 to work on The Burning.  (Tom was not happy at the lack of continuity between F13 one and two.  I don't blame him.)  Praise Jebus that Tom felt that way.  The Burning may be his best work...which is saying a lot, considering the man once orchestrated the obliteration of his own head via shotgun.  It is Savini's talent and the freedom he was given with his setpieces that landed The Burning on the Video Nasties list, the only film released by a "major" studio to be given the "honor" (the US and UK video releases were distributed by Thorn/EMI, then a major player in the film market...but not for too long afterwards).

The Setup:

Camp Blackfoot, 1976: Five teenage boys, fed up with the cruel treatment meted out by Cropsy, the groundskeeper/caretaker, decide to play a vicious prank to even the score.  But it all goes horribly wrong when the shack, the rest of the camp, and Cropsy himself are consumed by flames.  Doused by a river, but very much alive, Cropsy spends five years in a burn unit...and picks up a prostitute as soon as he gets out.  Too bad she never learned her manners.  Cropsy butchers her when she expresses disgust with his malformed face.

1981: Up the river a ways from the ruins of Camp Blackfoot, Todd (Brian Matthews) and Michelle (Leah Ayres) have their hands full, as counselors to a wild group of teens at yet another camp.  We meet and get to know several of the kids: Alfred (Brian Backer), a voyeuristic loner; Woodstock (Fisher Stevens), a too-skinny worrywart; Dave (Jason Alexander), the wisecracker who seems to be friends with everyone; Eddie (Ned Eisenberg), self-described ladies' man; Glazer (Larry Joshua), a blustering bully; Sally (Carrick Glenn), Glazer's sort-of girlfriend and the object of Alfred's repressed desire; Karen (Carolyn Houlihan), Eddie's would-be girlfriend.

Unlike a lot of summercamp slasher films, the kids in The Burning are for the most part a likable bunch and they seem to be having a good time at camp (Compare this bunch to the kids in Sleepaway Camp, who are all mean and stupid).  But when our group of older kids take a canoe trip downriver, they end up near the ruins of Camp Blackfoot and enter Cropsy's domain...

The original UK video release was not based on the UK X-certified version.  Nor the US R-rated cut.  Thorn/EMI's original UK video release was "accidentally" unrated and uncut.  And seeing as the violence is exceptionally brutal (compare The Burning to Friday The 13th, there is almost no gore in the latter), it's not surprising that notice was taken.  The film's centerpiece is the "Raft Massacre", a bravura sequence in which FIVE kids meet their ends at the hands of Cropsy and his bigass garden shears in the space of thirty seconds.  I can't think of another slasher film that even attempts such a thing - for the most part, slasher killers wait until their victims are by themselves, or occupied with an attractive member of the opposite sex and oblivious to who might be sneaking up behind them.  It's an amazing sequence, and the main reason why the film is held in high regard by horror fans who have seen it.  Savini held nothing back on this film: He created some of his bloodiest and most memorable effects sequences for this production, and the Raft Massacre is the pinnacle of them all.

And since we've covered dead teenagers, let's move on to the other staple of the slasher film, gratuitous nudity!  Almost all of the boy's asses are seen at one point or another (you might even spy some between-the-legs balls!).  Early in the film, one girl steps into an outdoor shower, always an ominous fixture in horror films since 1960's Psycho.  Our view is strictly shoulders and up at first, holding long enough to make us think this will be a G-rated shower...until the camera zooms out for no reason other than to put the girl's breasts on the screen, then zooms back in before anything actually happens.  Now that's gratuitous!  There's something so charming about that kind of cinematic behaviour.  The only thing I can think of to improve it would be to do the same with the male characters as well, even out that playing field a bit.

The Burning also has something most slasher films lack: at least one strong male figure.  The slasher film is usually focused on a female character who is left to defeat the villain.  In this case, it is a male who delves into the monster's lair to wage the final battle...which leads to a jarringly clumsy moment.  In what is intended to be a standard slasher moment - the final reel "reveal" of a corpse as yet undiscovered by anyone in the film - our hero turns to see what is meant to be the dead body of a girl killed off by Cropsy halfway through the picture.  What's wrong is that the character wasn't meant to be making any kind of discovery at that point.  It was decided in postproduction that he should encounter the corpse.  So what he sees is a freezeframe taken from the murder setpiece, poorly cropped with a black matte.  You can still see the trees behind her, even though her "body" is supposedly underground.  A shoddy, inept moment in what is otherwise a very well-executed piece of horror cinema.

For best results, kill the lights, cuddle up under a blanket with someone attractive, and turn up the volume as you watch this one.  Keep a window open, too, so the ambient sounds of the night intrude.  It will keep you on edge.  You never know if Cropsy might be lurking outside, garden shears at the ready.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

It's been almost a year since I started this endeavour, and I must say that I'm a bit disappointed with my pace.  That's okay, though, because I also like savouring the experience.  And if you find yourself in upstate New York, avoid the ruins of burned-out summer camps.  There might be a burned-up madman lying in wait.  Heed my warning.  I sure will.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Naked & Caged: The Master Race...And The Monster!

Video Nasty #16


YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!

The Beast In Heat
1977

A TERRIFYING STORY OF VIOLENCE AND MADNESS.



HORRIFYING EXPERIENCES IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE S.S.!

Original Italian title: La Bestia In Calore
Alternate titles: SS Hell Camp, Horrifying Experiments Of The SS Last Days, S.S. Experiment Camp 2
NTSC Running time: 90:00 +/- 5 minutes.  (An explanation for this wildly vague running time is contained in the article below.  Most sources quote the length at 86 minutes, so that's about right.)
Directed by Luigi Batzella (as Ivan Kathansky)
Written by Luigi Batzella (as Ivan Kathansky), Dialogue by Lorenzo Artale
Produced by Roberto Perez Moreno
Starring: Macha Magall, Salvatore Baccaro (as Sal Boris), Gino Turini (as John Braun), and a whole lotta naked people!
Body Count: 23 one-on-one murders, with two extended (and bloodless) battle sequences netting approximately 23 kills apiece, for a total of 69!
Naked People: 11 - 7 women and 4 men have full-frontal nude scenes.
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD from Media Blasters under the title SS Hell Camp.

BBFC Status

Why it's a Nasty: Nazis, rape, torture, nudity, gore, sexualized violence.  Did I mention the sexualized violence?
What was cut: Nothing.
Current UK Status: The Beast In Heat has never been submitted for cinema or video classification.  It remains banned in the UK
The Beast In Heat was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.

Welcome to the wonderful, twisted world of Nazisploitation.

Dr. Kratsch (Macha Magall) is an SS officer and "scientist".  Her latest discovery: a strange serum that turns (men? apes? Either way, it doesn't matter) into raving, horny mongoloids.  She has one caged in her "lab".  He's big.  He's hairy.  He's naked.  And his master loves giving him naked women to play with.

That is how the film begins: Dr. Kratsch, over the objections of her colleague (who we never see again, she probably had him killed), gives her pet a girl to "play" with.  As soon as the unfortunate girl (and the audience) sees the monster (Salvatore Baccaro), she tries to get away...but no dice there, chickie.  Shoved into the cage, she is enthusiastically raped by the rapacious hulk, giving all assembled the show of virility that Dr. Kratsch had promised.  The doctor approaches a male officer who is observing.  She sticks her hand in his shirt, asking if he is excited.  Upon his affirmative, she slaps his face and chastises him: Nazis are not supposed to get excited about anything, according to her.  And, as if to show off her hypocrisy, she then approaches a female officer, who is also very excited, and they share a long, open-mouthed kiss.  Apparently it's only the women who are allowed to be aroused by all that rape.  Go figure.

Scenes like this are why the film is so notorious.

But before you run right out to find it, a word of fair warning: The bulk of this film is taken up with scenes from Quando Suona La Campana (When The Bell Tolls), another film Batzella directed 7 years earlier.  It's standard war movie stuff: soldiers, resistance fighters, lots of battle scenes where people who have been machinegunned at close range clutch their chests and fall over without a drop of blood spilled.  Only the brutal, bloody lab scenes were filmed for The Beast In Heat, the rest is wartime melodrama...not that there aren't a few thrills, like the scene where a German soldier rips an infant from its' mother's arms, tosses it in the air, and treats it to a volley of machine gun fire.  Poignant.

The accepted estimate is that about 40 minutes of new footage was added to create The Beast In Heat, but I can't vouch for that.  It actually seemed like a bit less, but I wasn't able to tell.  The DVD I viewed, which is almost undoubtedly an uncut print (thank goodness), did not have a counter on it.  Score one for VHS, which has its' time display in the machine, not on the tape.  Ever notice how "modern technology" is business slang for "craftier ways to screw the customer"?  But I digress.  It is these sequences in the lab that make the film worth seeing.  Not surprisingly, they are also why the film is controversial.  We've all seen war movies, and they're not all Saving Private Ryan or We Were Soldiers.  Most of them are boring as hell.  When The Bell Tolls isn't bad, but it's nothing special, either.  Resistance fighters kill soldiers.  Soldiers rape and kill resistance fighters.  There is one sequence that deserves special mention:

Don Vincenzo (Brad Harris) has been collaborating with the resistance, yet he is conflicted about the violence involved.  Towards the end of the picture, when soldiers storm his church in an attempt to extract information, Don Vincenzo has had enough.  He resists, engaging in fisticuffs with his uninvited guests because he hopes to save their female hostage.  In a film where literally dozens of people have already been casually gunned down, Nazis armed with firearms fight a priest with one hand on their guns before leaving, routed, at the arrival of Drago (Gino Turini), our mustachioed Italian hero.  Wait, what?

I'm guessing that this implies a bit of reverence for the church on the part of the filmmakers.  Viewing this scene, it made me think (like many things do) about the films of Lucio Fulci.  Fulci was known for openly ridiculing and lambasting the church, always with some contempt, be it in his comedies [All'onorevole piacciono le donne (Nonostante le apparenze... e purché la nazione non lo sappia), which translates to The Senator Likes Women (Despite appearances... and provided the nation doesn't know), often shortened to the much easier to fit on a marquee The Eroticist], period drama [Beatrice Cenci], or his violent thrillers [Non Si Sevizia Un Paperino, aka Don't Torture A Duckling].  Clergy are regularly corrupt or murderous in Fulci's films, villainous figures.  Batzella, working in the same place at the same time as Fulci, won't even allow a shot to be fired in the church...by Nazis with a hostage who are holding loaded guns!  This scene was clearly lifted from When The Bell Tolls, so perhaps there is something else there in terms of that story, but I don't think so.  Throughout The Beast In Heat, the Nazis are shown to have no compassion for anything (did I mention skeet shooting a baby?), so why in the world would they allow themselves to be beaten up by a priest and a stereotype?  They wouldn't.  Is this a personal commentary by the director...or was When The Bell Tolls just a really vanilla war film?  I don't know.  But it's fun to speculate.

There also seems to be a question of what the director's real name was.  He used several pseudonyms, which was common, but while most folks who engage in the practice leave little doubt as to which name is the genuine article, this man either wasn't talking...or no one knows enough about him.  Let's look at what we know.  Born in San Sperate, Sardinia in 1924, our man made 15 films as a director, 20 as an actor.  His film career ended in 1980, but he lived another 28 years until he died from Parkinson's disease at the age of 84.  Some claim his real name to be Luigi Batzella, others claim Paolo Solvay, which has that smoother, shorter feel common to family names in Sardinia.  For his true name, my money's on Solvay, but for the purposes of this article, I'm going to stick with Batzella.  A guy named Solvay would make sensitive movies about love in times of strife.  A guy named Batzella might punch your mom in the face while he pisses in your soup.  And isn't that why I watched The Beast In Heat?

Oh yes, it is.  And when we're not watching bloodless battle sequences or beautiful countryside, it's full-blown sex and violence!  That's why I bought a ticket.  Hell, I think that's why anyone who's ever watched this thing bought a ticket.  And when it's time for the goods, they are delivered with style.  A naked woman is tied to a table, her torso burned by a heated bucket, and then a ferocious pair of guinea pigs eat her flesh (There are no typographical errors in the previous sentence).  A nude man is strung up by his heels, dunked furiously in a trough of water, and whipped mercilessly...all at the same time.  When Dr. Kratsch has three naked male rebels tied up for her own personal use, one of them calls her disgusting and "nothing more than a bitch in heat!"  Which brings to mind the obvious question, who is the real beast?  The monster...or the creator?  The answer here, I think, is both.  Kratsch cuts the man's dick off (good for the films budget, but unfortunate for the audience, this happens offscreen), taking sadistic pleasure in it.  Her creation, meanwhile, is busy raping another naked chick.  The next effect is the best, most revolting, scene: The monster tears the woman's pubic hair off and eats it...all in a graphic close up.  I truly think that the only reason this attack is shown and the castration is not was due to budgetary reasons.  Batzella had already shown he wasn't afraid to put some cock on the screen, and I applaud him for it.  But the cost of creating a fake, somewhat realistic, severed penis, is prohibitive compared to asking an actress to shave and daubing her with some fake blood.

So how does it all turn out for Dr. Kratsch and her creation?  You'll have to watch it to find out.  Yes, I am recommending that you track down and watch The Beast In Heat.  I love a film that can make you laugh and cringe at the same time.  I love movies that aren't afraid to handle taboo subjects in irreverent ways.  And I love movies that don't pretend to be anything but what they are.  The gore effects are decent, not great.  The sex is terribly simulated, some of the worst I've ever seen (Attention Nazi guy, you do know that you can't have sex with your pants covering your wang, right?).  The dialogue is WAY better than anything you would expect, low on camp, high on wartime philosophy.  And Salvatore Baccaro has to be seen to be believed.  Bravo to this man, whose acromegaly cut his life short in 1984 at the age of 39.  But what a way to be remembered!  (For a glimpse of this striking man in a more realistic setting, you can watch for Salvatore playing himself, a humble flower vendor, in Dario Argento's masterful giallo Profondo Rosso.)

That's all for now, kids.  I love hanging out with you and it's always a blast.  Until next time, I'll leave you with my usual caution.  Stay the fuck away from Nazis.  I didn't need to tell you that, right?  Well, I did it anyway.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Friday, June 17, 2011

84 Years Ago...

Happy birthday to Lucio Fulci, Godfather of Gore, Il Maestro, and Gatekeeper of the 7th Door.


He passed away on March 13, 1996 from complications of his diabetes...but anyone who has seen his films is aware that the dead don't die.  FULCI LIVES!!!

So stay out of The House By The Cemetery, or you too will know Fear In The City Of The Living Dead and learn what lies in wait for us in The Beyond.  Heed this warning.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

The Panic Continues: Tom Six And His Centipedes.

In case you haven't heard by now (horror fans are buzzing about it no matter where they live), you can hear it here: The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), the latest film from Dutch director Tom Six, has been rejected for classification by the BBFC.  Let's take a look at the teaser trailer:



As you can see, he is well aware of the polarizing effect his film has had.  The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is a film that allegedly made Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) physically ill.  I was bored stiff.  The tale centers on Dr. Heiter, a German doctor living alone who kidnaps three tourists and sews them together, mouth-to-anus, to create a new kind of creature.  The film's tagline "100% Medically Accurate" is, according to Six, true: if given an IV drip to supplement the rear segments' diet of feces from the front segment, they could "live for years".  Accurate or not, the first film is mostly a statement about fascism and the horror of Nazi medical experiments.  There is little gore, and most of what makes the film so uncomfortable is left in the imaginations of the viewers.  Not so with the sequel, as the BBFC will attest.  In their own unique brand of paradoxical moralizing, they've included graphic descriptions of why they rejected the film in their press release on the subject.  I hesitate to print it here because it contains spoilers about the events of the film, so I will instead post a link to the BBFC and let them do the spoiling:

THC2 BBFC Press Release

Why am I writing about this?  Because it shows that, while the board may have "loosened" their restrictions in the last 30 years, they are a long way from allowing truly free expression in film.  Also, as keen eyed readers may have noticed, Full Sequence was NOT submitted for cinema classification.  A direct-to-video release was sought.  That would have been a nasty video, indeed.

Many UK horror fans are outraged by this turn of events, and I can't say I blame them.  What makes this almost funny is that, in the "digital age", all the BBFC has done is ensure that it will be downloaded illegally thousands of times over as soon as it is available.  Horror fans who would normally respect the artists and pay money for their own DVD copy are not given the option to do so, and must resort to piracy.  The BBFC has robbed the rightful copyright owners of hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue.  Six Entertainment has six weeks to appeal the decision, and if they can overturn this one, it would be an incredible coup.  Here's hoping.

If it remains banned, maybe we should stock up on DVDs and mail them, unsolicited, to our friends across the Atlantic.  Could they arrest me for that?  I should check the customs laws to make sure.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

A Victorian Massacre...Driven By Greed!

Video Nasty #15

Blood Rites
1968

A GRUESOME ORGY OF HUMAN MUTILATION!




MAD CREATURES OF THE NIGHT EXISTING ONLY FOR SENSUAL SADISTIC MOMENTS OF HUMAN SLAUGHTER!

Actual title: The Ghastly Ones
NTSC Running time: 71:43
Directed, Written, Shot, Edited, Sound, Costumes & Set Design by Andy Milligan
Produced by Jerome-Fredric (quite possibly a pseudonym for Milligan)
Starring: Veronica Radburn, Maggie Rogers, Hal Borske, Anne Linden, Carol Vogel, Eileen Hayes
Body Count: 9 + a rabbit.
Availability: Region 1 DVD from Something Weird Video, paired with another Milligan film, Seeds

BBFC Status

Why it's a Nasty: Those BBFC favorites, gore and rape.
What was cut: No cuts made because...
Current UK Status: Blood Rites has never been submitted for cinema or video classification.
Blood Rites was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.

As you can probably tell from the trailer above, this movie sucks.  It's poorly made, shoddily edited, woodenly acted and sounds like a pillow has been placed over the microphone.  The fact that it's still a lot of fun is a welcome surprise.

We open with another of those shock openers that mean nothing: A man and woman in Victorian dress enjoy an afternoon in the countryside.  They notice a strange house and sit for a moment.  They are then set upon by a drooling idiot who hacks them to pieces.

Roll Credits.

Three sisters and their husbands are summoned to New York for the reading of their father's will...many years after his death.  Apparently he was a bit of a weirdo.  The couples must spend a weekend at his house "in sexual harmony", after which the bequests will be handed out.  They arrive at the sprawling estate and meet Hattie, Martha and Colin, the servants.  Colin is recognizable (barely) as the loony from the opening.  He's still batshit and tears open a live rabbit with his teeth while hauling the luggage.  The couples settle in, and then a hooded figure begins prowling and killing.  Will our stuffy, upper crust heroes care enough about what's going on to even attempt to solve the mystery?

Nope.  They don't bother.  It's actually pretty funny.

The murders are gory, and the effects are so inept that the cheesiness actually makes them more disturbing than they would be otherwise.  Andy Milligan made a lot of movies.  What I've read about him paints a picture of a flamboyantly gay dressmaker and theater geek who hated all women due to harsh treatment from his domineering mother.  It shows in this film: The women are almost all greedy and domineering.  The one who isn't gets raped by her husband.  Early on, Richard (Fib LaBlaque) has to borrow money so he and his wife can travel to New York.  Upon his wife's insistence, he borrows from his brother Walter, a gay priest who desperately wants to resume a sexual relationship with his brother.  Wow.  I'd say you can't make that shit up, except Milligan did and it's so twisted that I can't do much except respect it.  What can I say?  I love bad, evil movies, and The Ghastly Ones certainly qualifies.

I don't have much else to say about this one, except that numerous sources list this film as running 81 minutes.  I can't find a print at that time, and if you send me one, I'll watch it...but this was so crappy that I'm not sure that I care.  No recommendation for this one unless you're someone who really loves bad filmmaking.  But I can say this: at least it wasn't Faces Of Death.  I'd sooner watch The Ghastly Ones five times in a row than submit to that shitstorm again.

So avoid crumbling estates on Staten Island, lest you meet a gibbering idiot who packs a hatchet.  I'm staying FAR away.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Driven To Kill By His Own Insane Blood!

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.

Friday, May 13, 2011

A Cannibalistic Shell Of A Man...

Video Nasty #13
Anthropophagus The Beast
1980


IT'S NOT FEAR THAT TEARS YOU APART...IT'S HIM!




WATCH IT, IF YOU DARE!

NTSC Running Time: 90:54
Actual Italian title: Antropophagus.
Also known as The Grim Reaper.
Directed by Aristide Massaccesi (as Joe D'Amato)
Written by Joe D'Amato and Luigi Montefiore (as George Eastman)
Produced by Joe D'Amato, George Eastman, Edward L. Montoro and Oscar Santaniello
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Saverio Vallone, Serena Grandi (as Vanessa Steiger), Margaret Mazzantini (as Margaret Donnelly), Mark Bodin, Bob Larsen with George Eastman and Zora Kerova
Body Count: 12
Availability: Uncut version on Region 1 2-Disc DVD from Shriek Show

BBFC Status

Why it's a Nasty: Cannibalism!
What was cut: Nothing...sort of.
Current UK Status: Antropophagus was submitted to the BBFC in its' American R-rated cut, under the title The Grim Reaper, which was passed uncut and awarded an 18 certificate on January 30, 2002.  This version shears the extreme violence, and some early plot exposition as well.
Availability: Cut version on Region 2 DVD from Hollywood DVD as The Grim Reaper.
Anthropophagus The Beast was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.

For anyone wondering about the odd title (which I had lots of fun saying when first learning how to pronounce it) and what it might mean, I refer you to the Science & Nature category question from this Trivial Pursuit Genus Edition card:

And the answer, of course is:



There you have it, Antropophagus means CANNIBAL!

The opening credits play over a happy German couple traversing through a small, bustling village with their little dog.  They reach the beach.  The girl goes for a swim, while her beau relaxes on the beach with some oversized headphones blasting awful music.  Investigating an abandoned dinghy, the girl discovers it to be covered in bloodstains.  Just as she screams, she is dragged under and becomes nothing but a cloud of murky red, Jaws-style.  We are now treated to a POV shot of something advancing on the boyfriend, his girl's blood dripping onto the sand.  The dog hightails it, the boy gets a hatchet to the head.

In true exploitation style, this gritty shock opening has little to nothing to do with the rest of the film.  I love that.

On a cable car high above (a forest?  a canyon?) we meet Carol (Zora Kerova), her pseudo-boyfriend Daniel (Mark Bodin), Arnold (Bob Larsen), and his pregnant (wife?  girlfriend?) Maggie (a young Serena Grandi).  Their talk of an island-hopping vacation catches the attention of Julie (Tisa Farrow, in her final screen appearance [She's not dead, she left acting to become a nurse]), who asks to hitch a ride to her destination, a small island that is never named.  They arrive in Athens (sharp-eyed viewers will notice Joe D'Amato himself as the bearded man who exits the cable car behind the main cast) and meet up with Alan (Saverio Vallone), who takes them to the charter boat and off they go.  Daniel is smitten with Julie, much to Carol's chagrin, while Julie is much more interested in Alan.  To pass the time, Carol tries reading Maggie's fortune with Tarot cards...but sees no future, which disturbs her to the point that she tosses the cards into the Mediterranean.  Upon their arrival at Julie's island, Maggie twists her ankle and stays on the boat with the skipper (an uncredited actor).  The rest explore the island, the one the German couple was enjoying in the prologue, only now there doesn't seem to be a soul around...then Maggie and the skipper go missing and the boat drifts out to sea...

So begins the descent into madness and death as our heroes struggle to solve the mystery of the deserted village, find a way off the island, and survive whatever has befallen this idyllic place...

It is impossible to discuss why Antropophagus is not just a cult favorite but one of the most notorious and reviled of the Video Nasties without dropping some spoilers.  You have been warned.

The island has been set upon by a creature that was once a man, but has become a monster (George Eastman).  A vicious, silent cannibal, the Anthropophagus Beast is an imposing figure whose presence pervades the picture despite his small (ten minutes, if that) amount of screen time.  To my mind, this equates him with Anthony Hopkins' performance as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs: not in the film much, but felt in every frame.

There are two sequences that have guaranteed the films' infamy.  They are both brief and occur in the final reel.  The first is the consumption of a fetus torn from its' mother's womb (while the gullible were convinced the effect was not an effect at all, but done for real, the reality is that Eastman was chowing down on a skinned rabbit purchased at an Italian butcher shop).  The second is the film's final scene: The Beast is stabbed in the gut with a pickaxe...and he proceeds to feast upon his own entrails before collapsing.  Though both sequences are brief, there is no buildup to them and the nonchalance with which they are handled only add to how effective they are.

And there are familiar faces here: Eastman was a D'Amato regular who appeared in Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead (which I mentioned in a previous piece) and he appears as the heavy in D'Amato's other entry on the Nasty list, Absurd, a companion piece to Antropophagus that some call a sequel (because it was made afterwards), some a prequel (D'Amato's opinion).  Tisa Farrow (yes, she is Mia's little sister) stars in another Nasty, Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2, known as Zombie Flesh Eaters in the UK.  Zora Kerova also worked with Fulci on his brutal 1982 giallo The New York Ripper, a film so filled with sexuality and violence that it will probably never see an uncut release in the UK.  It took 20 years to earn a BBFC certificate, debuting on DVD in 2002.  [As it is a favorite of mine and was rejected by the BBFC at the height of the Nasty hysteria, we will be covering The New York Ripper in a later column.]

While it was a box-office failure, Antropophagus has become a touchstone for lovers of golden-age Italian horror.  It is long on atmosphere and short on plot.  The violence explodes in quick, untelegraphed bursts.  The music is at times annoying, but unique.  The cinematography is exceptional (D'Amato made his name as a cameraman long before becoming a director).  Unusually for a D'Amato film, there is no sex or nudity, an oddity for a man whose career was mostly spent making pornography.

In the documentary Totally Uncut 2: The Horror Experience, D'Amato relates how, while filming in real Roman catacombs for the fetus eating sequence, the crew rented fake bones to augment the real bones.  When shooting ended for the day, the crew packed up EVERYTHING.  The rental house was horrified, and returned the real bones to D'Amato, who apparently still had them at the time of his death.  His quote: "Maybe someday someone will want to make a pilgrimage to my house!"

I sure do, boss, but not for the bones.  Just because you were cool.

Aristide Massaccesi: December 15, 1936 - January 23, 1999.  Rest in peace.  You are still admired and sorely missed.

I heartily recommend Antropophagus to anyone who wants to understand why Italian horror is so special.  You may not like it, but you won't regret seeing it.  We'll be covering Absurd in a little while.  Until then, stay away from deserted Greek islands.  I will do the same.  Because my name's Justin.  JustinCase.