Seen and not seen's, recommendations and queries on top films in general.

[FallOfNature]

Kill, Baby, Kill! - nice gothic visuals courtesy of Mario Bava. Movie itself left me pretty bored however.

1990: The Bronx Warriors & Escape from the Bronx - I always preferred the sequel but enjoyed the first one a little more this time around. Still can't stand that main actor and his effeminate manner though. Guy is supposed to be a badass post apocalyptic gang leader and struts around like a catwalk model (I think he actually was a model or something perhaps?). Fred Williamson kicking ass is a sure way to win me over though. Good trash.

Visiting Hours - mean spirited Canadian slasher, with Michael Ironside playing a sadistic psycho. Pretty cool.

Deathdream - one that's sat on my shelf for years unwatched. This actually left me quite impressed, some quite disturbing moments

[Theodore]

Riphagen (2016) : Watched it on Netflix. Dutch movie based on true story. Riphagen wasnt english or american, but his name is totally fit, cause he will rip you off ! Movie is not something really good, more like a dramatized doc, focusing on telling the story than to perform any artistic achievements. Everyone plays their role well enough though, and direction is OK for what it is. - I am not aware of the real events. I suppose movie is accurate cause nonetheless presents only the basic points. Even dialogues which would be impossible to source seem reasonable, something like this must happened. My comments are based on that movie only.

So, Riphagen was a Dutch criminal during WWII, a fascinating scumbag, a master manipulator ! Nowdays the term 'manipulator' -usually followed by the term 'narcissist' - is most often used to describe a little asshole who finds and exploits dumber / weaker people than him. No ! Riphagen was the real deal ! Ofcource he was ripping the Jews off but on the same time he was ripping off the Germans -he was collaborating with- too. For him everyone is just a tool. - But it's when the war is over the man shows his full talent. When the stakes are high, your life, your head is on the table. And you face people now much stronger than you, that they hate you, and there is no way out. You dig that hole, that exit, through that people. You convince them to help you, even if they hate themselves for doing that !

I dont think Riphagen had long-term plans. Whatever plan was becoming shorter and shorter. Buy a month, a day, a second ! Think, improvise, replace yourself. Spontaneously ! On-the-fly ! Satan !

Not a PC movie. No moral 'messages' . No preaching. No happy end. Are really the 'good' guys 'better' than Riphagen ? For sure they are not that capable.

[ConcreteMascara]

Work obligations have really slowed down my movie consumption as of late, but here's few quick reviews from the last few weeks...

Blood and Black Lace - [dir. Mario Bava, 1964] - finally watched the Arrow bluray I've been sitting on for years and goddamn does this look like a different movie compared to my old DVD. As far as slashers or giallos go it has arguably the most decadent use of color ever seen. Argento's Suspiria being the only other contender for the title that comes to mind. Beyond enjoying the huge visual improvement, I also forgot so many of the twists and turns it almost felt like a first viewing. Hard to beat coked up fashion models being picked off one by one as a premise. Part of me thinks it's a perfect movie, part of me says 4 out of 5. Either way, it's a classic.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - [dir. Tobe Hooper, 1974] - the air conditioning in my house was broken for almost two weeks and I decided to embrace the heat by watching TCM. While Blood and Black Lace might be a perfect slasher, TCM is undoubtedly is. I still can't believe I didn't like this movie at first but now it's top 5, maybe top 3 horror films.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III - [dir. Jeff Burr, 1990] - my review from Letterboxd says enough: "I routinely watch bad movies but holy shit this is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels are the fucking worst in any horror franchise."

House of Wax - [dir. Jaume Collet-Serra, 2005] - Inspired by Mondo-Digital recent review I decided to check this one out. Personally I like Paris Hilton, but feelings towards her are nearly irrelevant as she's barely in the movie, although she might have the best death scene. I was pleasantly surprised by the slow pace in the first half and the lack of jump scares. Some of the teen characters really earn their comeuppance by being total dick heads, which is fun. Elisha Cuthbert is stupid attractive and mostly in a wife-beater for the film. The gore is shockingly good for the era and there are some good horror visuals in general. But, to my memory, there's no nudity which is lame, although there is a visual reference to "One Night In Paris" early in the film that had me laughing. On the whole the movie is a bit on the long side but is otherwise a solid slasher flick that delivers atmosphere and gore in surprising amounts once it gets going.

[moozz]

Robowar (1988)
Bruno Mattei's ripoff borrowing HEAVILY from Predator (characters, plot, scenery) with kind of a futuristic helmet guy Robocop as the bad guy. Not cinematic art (felt kind of clumsy most of the time, some really bad acting) but if you love Predator and can appreciate bad movies I see no reason why you would not enjoy this. Lots of bullets flying around, nice gory effects.

The Warrior (aka Jaka Sembung) (1981)
The Indonesian action star(?) Barry Prima is Jaka Sembung who fights against the Dutch colonialist oppressors. It took a long time before Barry Prima did any proper fighting, I found most of the movie pretty boring. But there were some really crazy Asian parts as well with flying heads, reattaching limbs and magical surgery. If slow parts do not bother you too much you'll probably find this mind-bogglingly bizarre and entertaining, I thought those epic insane moments were too few and far between.

[ConcreteMascara]

Robowar (1988)
Bruno Mattei's ripoff borrowing HEAVILY from Predator (characters, plot, scenery) with kind of a futuristic helmet guy Robocop as the bad guy. Not cinematic art (felt kind of clumsy most of the time, some really bad acting) but if you love Predator and can appreciate bad movies I see no reason why you would not enjoy this. Lots of bullets flying around, nice gory effects.

Will have to check this out

[ConcreteMascara]

The Sect - [dir. Michele Soavi, 1991] - second viewing. didn't get to enjoy this as much as the first time since my friends wouldn't shut the fuck up. in my mind this is a good movie, so no live riff track is needed. pearls before swine.

Wishmaster - [dir. Robert Kurtzman, 1997] - we watched this immediately after and this needed all the riffing we could give it. honestly way better than I thought it'd be, but those CGI effects we're truly terrible. however, that 90s style is now old enough to have a certain nostalgia, even if its shit. the lighting and cinematography is powerfully flat and dull for the most part too. the female protagonist looked like a knock-off Sarah Connor but I was into it. the villain in human form reminds me of someone but I can't pin it down... it's been driving me crazy for weeks. overall i enjoyed this way more than i thought i would. it's a nice balance of mean-spirited fun and gore that felt like a '90s attempt to start an '80s slasher franchise, which turned out to be a successful attempt. best watched with friends.

Dead & Buried - [dir. Gary Sherman, 1981] - i fucking love this movie. i put it on after i got back home from a tooth extraction since i'd seen it so many times it wouldn't matter if i slept during parts. luckily i woke from my drug induced stupor to see the classic needle in the eye scene and those absolutely awesome last 15 minutes, but mostly just lay there bleeding from my mouth.

Tuesday night
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday - [dir. Adam Marcus, 1993] - i don't have the same affection for Ft13th as I do for Halloween so when the series jumps the shark here I did not feel personally attacked like some people. my first watch, I was constantly impressed by how extremely stupid the movie was, but how it made up for that with a sense of fun and very rapid pace. there's real quality tits early on but not much after say the 30-40 minute mark, which was disappointing. the gore also peaks around the same time, except for an exception and totally unexpected melt scene, but in general the gore is pretty constant. i can't stress enough how dumb the movie but there were a few times the wildly underwritten characters did act surprisingly realistically to their predicaments. there's also some meta-horror movie stuff put in there that's really on the nose but didn't offend me. and there's even an early scummy news satire segment that had me laughing out loud. i've gotta say this was so much fun to watch i'd probably watch it sooner than a few of the earlier Ft13th films.

[ConcreteMascara]

White Rose Campus: Then… Everybody Gets Raped - [dir. Koyu Ohara, 1982]
First off, I'm not quite sure everyone gets raped. I did my best to keep track and it seems like some of the ugly girls may have been spared this fate [for plot and maybe aesthetic reason]. I don't like being lied to, especially when it comes to my roman pornos. However since I can't conclusively prove or disprove the amount of rape I'm gonna have to give the movie a pass. In general this isn't nearly as awful as the title might suggest. Youu might even call it a romp, just with a significant amount of sexual assault. Granted that's coming from a total degenerate but I feel like I've seen a lot of Takashi Miike movies that were more extreme or repugnant than this. Special mention of Yuichi Minato who plays an extremely believable older pervert. Everything he did gave me reason to chortle. There's also a few twists that I called well in advance, but were still entertaining when they came to fruition. All in all, you could do better or worse in this genre, but for such a provocative title I felt a little dismayed at the lack of real misery.

[ConcreteMascara]

Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies - [dir. Jack Sholder, 1999]
This movie makes just about every mistake a sequel can make. It's dumber, it's more boring, there's less of everything good and more of everything bad, specifically very little gore. While the original teetered on silliness the whole time, this is just laughable. Mr. Wishmaster is trying so hard to be sinister but between his facial expression, delivery and dialogue.... well I'm just not buying it. Which is a shame because his performance was so much better, relatively speaking, in the first film. The one plus side, our leading lady is an absolute q-t-pi with fat titties, but naturally we don't see them. What this movie is more than anything, more than being dumb as hell, is boring. It's so fucking boring. Painfully boring. Do not recommend.

[A-Z]

Possession by Andrzej Żuławski
Saw this one about 15 years and liked it quite a lot. Decided to revisit today... and wow. Just wow. This is not a just good movie, as I remembered it before. This is a GREAT movie.
Middle class white woman is unsatisfied with the current system, starts flirting with Marxism, but it's not enough either, so she comes up with a faith of her own, sacrifces everyone from establishement spooks and former commie friends to LGBT and fellow women, eventually creates a system that looks just like the one she rebelled against in the first place, only utterly inhumane on the inside, and thus brings about the end of the western civilization. Also, this interpretation is most likely entirely wrong and so are dozens of others you can find around the internet, and that's the beauty of it.

[absurdexposition]

Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980)

The problematic favourite - and perhaps peak exploitation cinema?

I genuinely think this is a good film and for me the only unforgivable moments are the acts of actual animal killings. Any racial or cultural insensitivities towards the indigenous peoples are dealt with by way of the inter-film commentary about Western sensationalism sanctioned and sought-out by corporate entertainment (“news”) media looking to make a buck and/or gain some clout.

The ill-fated American Idiot “documentary” film crew was known to stage events for this exact purpose and they ultimately reaped what they were sowing as seen in the castrating, beheading, skinning and gutting of team member Jack Anders, which directly parallels the earlier fate of the tortoise by his hands, before the rest of them are all brutally karma’d, too. Then, in a perhaps too-on-the-nose ending, Professor Monroe walks out onto the streets of New York and “wonder who the real cannibals are” as the camera pans down the Avenue of the Americas.

I don’t know how much Deodato was purposely pushing the commentary angle as opposed to just making shock cinema, but to me the film is the film - an exploitative infinity loop: Who cannibalizes the cannibals? (Who exploits the exploited? And who exploits the exploiters?)

For this outing I watched the 2011 Shameless blu-ray - the transfer is not the best (it also omits the muskrat killing, for what it’s worth) and reminded me how much of a treat this was to see at the cinema a few years back. Plus, Riz Ortolani’s sentimental main theme is perfect.

“Guys like me are mad for turtle meat.” - Leonard Cohen


Sub note: It’s impossible to see New York of this vintage without spotting some of Fulci’s locations for films like Zombi 2 and The New York Ripper.

[cantle]

Re: Canninbal Holocaust- I worked under the assumption it was a artistic reply to the mondo films of Jacopetti and Prosperi especially 'Africa Addio' at least that is the impression I got from reading 'Sweet and Savage'

[ConcreteMascara]

last Friday I received my absurd order from the Severin mid-summer sale. I really must have been off my rocker because I bought way too much shit. Watched three of the films so far.

Aenigma - [dir. Lucio Fulci, 1987] - So last year I bought the 88 Films blu-ray of this which was just fine only to find out Severin was doing a US edition the next month and that edition would have a better commentary track. Like a true fucking nerd I had to get this one to hear Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson talk about this movie. It was a good commentary and the movie looks a little better than the 88 Films version so I guess I'll take it as a win...

Demonia - [dir. Lucio Fulci, 1990] - My friend and I have been looking forward to this one for quite some time, but while I was hoping for something ok with flashes of very good, he mistakenly thought it'd be actually good. Well I'd say we were both disappointed. I know the context of where this fell in Fulci's life and the budget constraints and all that, but damn if this just wasn't mostly boring as hell for the first half. It feels so padded which is not something you normally see in a Fulci film. lot's of cut backs to the same shots, lots of stupid optical/lens effects for the sake of nothing and such terrible pacing. There's a few moments of almost wild gore here and there but they're used so ineffectually and they're so rushed it's more of a tease than a reward. Still, somehow, I was able to enjoy some of the atmosphere and feel only partially cheated by the poor execution of what could have been a more entertaining story. I will say some of the scenes reminded me of Tombs of the Blind Dead, so bonus points for that.

Byleth: The Demon of Incest – [dir. Leopoldo Savona, 1972] – Now this was a lot more fun than Demonia. Going to go into spoilers for this 29 year old movie, fyi. So the main character and his redhead sister, both aristocrats, used to fuck, but she comes back from a year of travel with a new swarthy Italian husband and no longer wants to put out for brother. He’s dismayed and takes it out on all the redheads in town, killing them while “possessed” by Byleth. The murders are weak and the gore almost non-existent, but to make up for that there’s a shitload of nudity and a lot of voyeurism centered around it. Pretty spicy for 1972. Plus the whole demon possession subplot is a nice little extra, especially with the backroom discussions of the pantheon of demons. Felt like I was listening to an Inquisition song at times. These elements come together to create a film that lies somewhere between erotic thriller, supernatural horror and pseudo-slasher. It’s fast moving and fun and even has some decent costuming and location shooting. Reminded me a bit of The Slasher is the Sex Maniac, although not quite as miserable. Would definitely recommend it as a spot of fun unless you’re only in it for the gore.

[TS]

Possession by Andrzej Żuławski
Saw this one about 15 years and liked it quite a lot. Decided to revisit today... and wow. Just wow. This is not a just good movie, as I remembered it before. This is a GREAT movie.
Middle class white woman is unsatisfied with the current system, starts flirting with Marxism, but it's not enough either, so she comes up with a faith of her own, sacrifces everyone from establishement spooks and former commie friends to LGBT and fellow women, eventually creates a system that looks just like the one she rebelled against in the first place, only utterly inhumane on the inside, and thus brings about the end of the western civilization. Also, this interpretation is most likely entirely wrong and so are dozens of others you can find around the internet, and that's the beauty of it.

Whatever it means, it's fucking cool.

[aububs]

speaking of folk horror, this is incoming at some stage. 3hr documentary by kier-la janisse. apologies for the huge image

^^^this was incredible

[absurdexposition]

https://severin-films.com/shop/folk-horror-box/