Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) - Horror Film Review

Of course, I own the classic Lucio Fulci (Demonia, The Beyond) zombie horror film Zombie Flesh Eaters (also known as Zombie and Zombi 2). It was one of the earlier films I picked up on DVD, so was surprised to see I hadn't ever reviewed it on this site. With the release of a new 4K version on streaming service ARROW, I figured it was about time I revisit this.

An apparently deserted yacht appears in the New York bay area and two police men are sent to investigate. They discover a strange blood soaked man who attacks and kills one of the officers before his partner ends him. The boat belonged to the doctor uncle of Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), someone who she lost contact with three months previous, so she wants to trace where the vessel came from so she can try and locate her uncle. Meanwhile, Peter West (Ian McCulloch - Zombie Holocaust) is a reporter who conveniently enough has been assigned a story on where the boat came from. The two end up meeting up and hiring a boating couple; Brian (Al Cliver - Demonia) and Susan (Auretta Gay). Together they head toward where they believe the boat originated from, an island that the locals see as a cursed place. Eventually arriving there, the group meet Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson), someone who is trying to survive and understand a disease that turns anyone affected into the walking dead.

Initially I was a little underwhelmed with this. In my head, I had been thinking this was Zombie Creeping Flesh, a film that I have fond memories of. Alas, it wasn't that, but it also meant that lots of this was film I had forgotten about. Some parts had stayed with me, the shark versus zombie battle, and especially one very gory scene involving a giant wooden splinter getting impaled through someone's eyeball! I hadn't recalled how relatively slow the film was, with zombies not appearing in force until the final act. I liked this drip feed of undead goodness, with the undead initially shown mainly under sheets. The last twenty minutes is where it really is at, a great siege sequence featuring plenty of ghouls. The make-up for these creatures is make-do at best, a repeated use of effects that kind of look like people have had paper Mache added to their faces, so that they can look suitably rotted, and able to house real worms and maggots. These corpses are able to effortlessly rip victims apart, at least the violence on the victims looked great, lots of spraying blood and torn flesh.

The story is straight forward, but was a classic tale. I loved that the outbreak was already going on by the time the protagonists had arrived. I thought Dr. Menard and his assistant (Stefania D'Amario) were great characters, in over their heads, but a ghoulish curiosity keeping them in the thick of the unfolding chaos. I also appreciated there wasn't ever an explanation for how the outbreak began, locals putting it down to Voodoo, but the doctor convinced it is some sort of natural creation. The island setting gave a bit of a Heart of Darkness vibe to the story, and the simple plot meant it was always easy to understand the motivations of the various characters.

Zombie Flesh Eaters is a classic of the genre, and is yet another statement that to make a good horror featuring the undead you don't need the best make-up effects, less is typically more. This sometimes doesn't have the scope to be able to sell the story beats it is trying to sell, and the dubbing is amusingly terrible at best, but this has a diverse soundtrack and some classic moments of zombie horror. The 4K version of Zombie Flesh Eaters arrives on ARROW on 28th July, and is the best way to currently see this flawed yet undeniable classic.

SCORE:

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Tim Burton's 1988 comedy horror film Beetlejuice is near universally recognised as a classic, coming out during the director's most iconic period. Truth be told, I don't actually rate it that highly. It is an ok film with some good scenes but had a lot of pacing issues. My sister has been raving about the sequel - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, ever since she saw it at the cinema some weeks back. Getting sick of her constantly asking if I've seen it yet I headed off with my bestie to check it out.

Taking place in present day things have changed a lot for the Deetz family. Former goth teenager Lydia (Winona Ryder - Black Swan, Alien Resurrection) now has her own paranormal investigation show. She also has a teenage daughter - Astrid (Jenna Ortega - Scream VI, Wednesday TV show), who sees her mothers claims of being able to see the dead as pure lies. After Lydia's father is killed in a tragic and amusing accident the family come together to mourn his passing. Lydia and her mother, Delia (Catherine O'Hara - Elemental voice work, Home Alone) pulling Astrid out of boarding school and returning to Delia's house (the same one from the original movie) for the funeral. It is here that it is discovered Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton - Spider-Man: Homecoming, Batman Returns) is still operating and still hopes to one day be reunited with Lydia (who he had previously tried to marry as a means to be able to return permanently to the land of the living). This is something Lydia intends to prevent at all costs.
Meanwhile in the underworld, Beetlejuice learns from detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe - Spider-Man: No Way Home, John Wick) that his cultist wife from when he was living - Delores (Monica Bellucci - The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Reloaded), has escaped her afterlife confinement and is now hunting for the ghost with the most. With her having the power to consume the souls of the dead this becomes a problem for the denizens of the dead realm.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is exactly how I figured it would be. Thankfully it is in a better place for me than the original. As I said, that first film was ok with moments of goodness. This sequel is instead good with moments of greatness. The whole comedy horror is in full force and looks better than ever due to the modern day effects. The dead especially look great, such as Delores' initial reforming scene where she staples back together her chopped up body. Special effects throughout were impressive and includes returning stop motion effects. There were some twisted moments here that were gross as well as fun, such as Lydia having a baby version of Beetlejuice burst out of her stomach (the baby looking much like the one from Peter Jackson's cult comedy zombie film Braindead). There was also a well done scene where a room full of people have their faces contort into grotesque shapes before they are sucked into their mobile phone screens. The most memorable parts of the first movie reappear, namely people forced against their will by Beetlejuice to mimic singing old songs. This included a late scene set in a church which was near perfection. There was also a neat call back to the iconic dining room dance scene from the first movie, with a choir singing the same song from that part at Lydia's fathers funeral.

I didn't mind a lot of the characters. Due to real life controversies surrounding the actor who played the father, this character is dealt with in an ingenious way. An entertaining fully stop motion sequence is used for the flashback showing how he died, and due to being eaten by a shark, when he does appear in the film it is as a walking torso, they got around not being able to use the original actor cleverly. I enjoyed the character of Lydia and I though Delia had improved a lot, being quirky rather than a nasty person. I had expected Astrid to be the stand-in for the teenage Lydia, fully expecting her to be all gothed up like Ortega was in Wednesday, so I was surprised to see her as a much more normal girl. I had heard complaints that Beetlejuice wasn't in the movie much, but he felt to me that he wasn't that prolific first time around either. I though having duel antagonists was interesting, especially as the two never actually meet with each other. Unfortunately they didn't really have much screen time to shine, Delores in particular felt almost pointless. I also didn't like how swiftly both of these villains were dealt with once they had served their purposes. Outside of that, the story felt like it flowed more smoothly even if it wasn't the most amazing story going on.

I thought Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a good movie. I enjoyed the ties to the original and loved the special effects. For the church scene alone I am going to be picking this up on Blu-ray when it releases, the highs really were very high indeed. 

SCORE:

City of the Living Dead (1980) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Back when I was first properly getting into horror films at the turn of the century I would pretty much buy anything that looked interesting. The zombie genre in particular was a highlight of horror for me, and so seeing Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead (a horror legend, not that I knew that at the time) on DVD I purchased it, fully expecting it to live up to the title. I did not like what I got, instead of an undead filled extravaganza I instead had a supernatural horror full of bizarreness. I hadn't seen it since, but hearing it was heading to limited edition 4K UHD, as well as heading to the ARROW streaming subscription service I just had to check it out, to give it a fair chance that my younger self didn't do. It turns out some of my memories of this were correct, but other parts I had thankfully misremembered.

A priests suicide in a graveyard in the American town of Dunwich results in the gates of Hell being opened. Having had a vision of this event occurring, a young New York based psychic woman, Mary (Catriona MacColl - The Beyond) teams up with a reporter named Peter (Christopher Bell), as she believes her vision has shown her that the only way to close the gateway to Hell lays with the priest, and that they must get the  gate closed before the approaching All-Saints Day is reached. Their task becomes a lot harder once they arrive at the town, and discover that a variety of supernatural events are occurring, including the dead refusing to stay dead...

The whole film has a feeling of a nightmare to it and so elements of this only make sense in a kind of dream logic type of way. From what I remembered there were not actually any zombies in the movie, thankfully that turned out to be incorrect, with the whole third act turning the film into a zombie one. The make-up effects on the walking dead was fantastic, corpses look to be rotting, with live insects such as worms and maggots crawling over them. In a really novel way, the undead are supernatural in nature, having the pretty chilling ability to not only teleport, but having super strength and able to make people literally puke up their internal organs just by locking eye contact with their chosen victim! The story is a bit bare bones, and it is never really stated exactly how the heroes are going to be able to close the gateway to Hell. It all leads up to an infamously terrible ending that rumour says wasn't actually meant to the end, but that the footage was somehow lost or destroyed and so, not being able to afford a re-shoot, Fulci had to make do with what he had. It is a shame that the last scene in the film is also the worst, it leans into the dream logic, but it really makes no sense whatsoever. Following on from some really strong scenes it did put a bit of a dampener on an otherwise near flawless final thirty minutes.

It is an upward path to this living up to its title, but the horror that comes before is frequently pretty neat. The priest teleports around town murdering random people (always showing up still hanging from his noose), there is a tense scene in which a woman buried alive is constantly nearly pick-axed to death by the man trying to save her(!), and at one point the protagonists  have to endure a rain of maggots. Disgustingly this scene was actually done using real maggots, with the poor cast having thousands and thousands of the insects blown over them by a giant wind machine. I hate insects being used as a means of generating horror, I don't find it scary, just gross and sickening. Maggots likely don't have feelings, but I still felt bad seeing them treated in such a bad way. Other moments are cool though, such as a mysterious fireball that erupts out the floor, mirrors smashing on their own, cracks in walls opening up, and walls bleeding. Then there is the ultra violent scene where the town idiot has his head forced into a spinning drill. Being the eighties the effects are of course all practical ones and look suitably great. Also great is the soundtrack, it sounds very much like Goblin's style, and was wonderfully catchy.

I had hoped that giving the film a second chance would improve my feeling towards it, and I was right. Rather than a poor quality DVD transfer, the film here looked crisp and clear, really adding a lot to all the nightmarish scenes. I still think the many scenes involving real insects was ill-judged and gross, but the other horror makes up for it, especially with the undead whose ability to teleport made them an intimidating foe to face, and of course the wonderful practical effects. City of the Living Dead comes to ARROW (here), and releases on limited edition 4K UHD on 25th March.

SCORE:

Emanuelle's Revenge (2022) - Thriller Film Review

Growing up pre-internet, the Emmanuelle series of French erotic films were something that teenagers often spoke about in hushed tones. I can't say they ever appealed to me, and they still don't. That is a good thing, as while on the surface Emanuelle's Revenge (also known as Do Ut Des) appears to be a modern day re-invention of that series, it is in fact a remake of Joe D.Amato's 1975 erotic thriller Emanuelle e Françoise (Le sorelline). I spoiled myself by reading the synopsis for that one, as this goes along the same lines but not as far.

The prologue shows a young woman, Francesca (Ilaria Loriga) committing suicide by jumping off a bridge. It is then up to the first act of the movie to show how she came to be in the mindset to do that. Francesca had met a rich man, Leonardo (Gianni Rosato), whose pushy ways and gift buying soon lowers her defences enough where she decides to be with him. A year later, and lesbian novelist Emanuelle (Beatrice Schiaffino) has a seemingly chance encounter with Leonardo, who soon becomes determined to find out more about this mysterious and alluring woman. Under a pretence of needing material for a new book, she enlists his aim for a special project, something the lustful man is more than happy to do. As the film's title implies however, it seems that Emanuelle may well have revenge on her mind, perhaps for that incident with Francesca a year previously.

The 1974 film went to far more dark places, which isn't to say that there aren't some dark implications here, just that the synopsis for the other one sounded more chilling. With the whole first act dedicated to Francesca's nightmare, it wasn't even vaguely hidden that Emanuelle had ulterior motives for the slimy Leonardo. The middle act played out in a fashion that reminded me of cult Japanese horror The Audition, with it leading to a similar situation. When they are alone at her house and she reveals a secret sex dungeon, I was a little disappointed initially that it wasn't actually a secret kill room. This is a thriller, but I wouldn't go quite as far as to say it is a horror, as once Emanuelle's trap is sprung, it is far more psychological than physical in fashion. Leonardo is never shown as anything other than a rotten man, maybe his only good quality being the love for his daughter, Giulia (Miriam Dossena). His ugly interactions with his friends, and the disposable way he treats women makes him someone plainly not meant to be liked. Emanuelle was far more of a blank slate, though I did find it interesting that she hasn't made her long term girlfriend aware of what she is doing, so this causes conflict in her relationship. She is also willing to go to some nasty places for her revenge, happy to bring in innocents as tools to use.

Special effects are minimal, with not much really needed on screen, there was a feeling of eventual threat, and I did wonder how the film would neatly tie things up. I can't say I quite understood where this ended, with the contents of a hand written note going over my head. As an erotic thriller there were a fair few sex scenes, thankfully not to much in depth, there are plenty of breasts, and some nudity at a distance, thankfully these sex scenes were over with swiftly, not being as essential to the story as I had feared they might.

Emanuelle's Revenge wasn't a film tailored to my particular likes, and that is perfectly ok. As such however, I knew this would have a hard time appealing to me. I liked where this revenge thriller eventually went to, and I thought Rosato and Shiaffino both did good enough jobs with their characters, but I can't say I had the most exciting time here. Emanuelle's Revenge is due to be released on DVD and VOD/Streaming on December 14th from Cinephobia Releasing.

SCORE:

The Goldsmith (2022) - Horror Film Review

The Goldsmith (original title L'Orafo) is an Italian home invasion horror directed and co-written by Vincenzo Ricchiuto (in his directorial debut) that turns the tables somewhat by having the invaders swiftly becoming the ones in peril. With a fantastic cast, this low key horror was something I really came to enjoy.

Roberto (Gianluca Vannucci), Arianna (Tania Bambaci), and Stefano (Mike Cimini) are lifelong friends and criminals who have heard about an elderly goldsmith and his wife whose remote workshop is ripe for robbing. One evening, the trio break into the couples home and soon have them tied up. After some persuasion, the goldsmith, Antonio (Giuseppe Pambieri), reveals the secret entrance to his workshop, with the three overjoyed at all the loot for them to take. Soon after entering the windowless room however the door automatically shuts behind them and they discover they are trapped inside. It is then that Antonio and his wife, Giovanna (Stefania Casini) reveal themselves to be far less innocent than they at first appeared, with Antonio displaying a troubling amount of knowledge about who the invaders are, and knowing some of their most guarded secrets...

The film is almost evenly split between two slightly different methods of horror. The first half is far more psychological, with Antonio's revelations causing no end of friction between the friends, causing them to begin to turn on each other. Without spoilers, the second half transitions into something more in common with so called torture porn horrors, here the more messed up moments occur. These messed up moments look great, with much of the camerawork hiding what is taking place out of sight of the viewer. There is a bodycount, but I was surprised just how relatively bloodless The Goldsmith was, with the cool looking kills not really featuring any blood at all, but this didn't detract from what was going on.

The cast were the glue that held this film together, I can't think of a single actor here who felt like they didn't belong. Antonio and Giovanna were crazy characters, but the direction prevented these from becoming over the top caricatures, with instead a low level insanity bubbling through. I would say their motivations when revealed make barely any sense, but this added to the charm of how bonkers they both where. Unlike Don't Breathe, I found it very hard to root for the robbers, they were shown to always have been bad people, straight from the opening prologue that sees them stabbing a man as teenagers. I did think that Vannucci's Roberto was probably my favourite character. A complete coward whose whiny voice and desperate threats made for someone quite memorable. Special mention goes to Matteo Silvestri whose small role as a forest ranger led to a fun scene that gave near Quentin Tarantino levels of suspense, with good use of inset shots to show his increasing suspicion.

The Goldsmith told a simple story in an engaging and enjoyable way. From the design of the goldsmith's home, to some perfectly chosen actors, and the transition into the creepily bizarre later story's twists and turns, I found this to be a neat horror. Final mention goes to the great song that plays over the end credits, which made me sit around for them all. The Goldsmith comes to VOD on Thursday October 12th from Cinephobia Releasing.

SCORE:

It's Not A Wolf (2022) - Horror Film Review

It's Not A Wolf (also known as Non é un lupo) is an Italian horror film that comes from writer/director Nicoló Tagliabue. The protagonists may be taking things very seriously here, but the subject matter and some of the more comedic side characters mean much of this felt very tongue in cheek. Thankfully, the twist of what is causing the horror is something that is present on the movie posters, so I won't need to skirt around that very early reveal.

Glauco (Thomas Francesconi) has recently been released from prison and is under house arrest at his large house outside a rural Italian town. After his neighbours chicken's are all killed, she accuses Glauco of having done it, but it turns out there is a far more sinister explanation. That night, after hearing strange noises outside, Glauco encounters a dinosaur, and it isn't long before he realises it is the first of many that have inexplicably descended on the town. Teaming up with a new friend, Laura (Susanna Valtucci), they set out into the town, looking for somewhere to hide from the madness.

I'm not sure if it was down to budget constraints, or if it was purposeful on the part of the director, but there are some strange concessions to the flow of the film here that felt quite odd. By the time Glauco realises there is more than one dinosaur on the loose he is surrounded by a bunch of characters, yet cutting to the next scene it is suddenly much later, with him and Laura being in a different location entirely and on their own, with it assumed all the other characters have been killed. Much of the movie has just these two characters, later on joined by a third, local simpleton Davide (Nikolas Lucchini). Again later in the film a similar trick is used but in reverse. With just fifteen minutes left a whole bunch of characters are introduced randomly, with the protagonists even disappearing from the story for a time so that the film can follow these new characters. These moments disrupted the flow, I can only assume there were so few characters for much of the run time due to the budget (estimated to be around 15,000 Euros).
Some of these side characters felt like they would get their comeuppance at the claws of the dinosaurs as karma for their actions, yet mainly just disappear from the film with no resolution to their side plots. That includes the somewhat abrupt ending.

Both main characters treat the movie they are in as a serious thing. Rather than more ridiculous horror films like Birdemic and the like where the actors perform over the top seriously, here, the actors felt more grounded, even if they felt like the only serious characters in a ridiculous movie. This does lead to some fun moments, with the excitable Davide almost fourth wall breaking at times with his observations on what is happening. Adding to the fun silliness is the dinosaurs themselves. I say themselves, but despite this being a dinosaur outbreak (with not a single attempt made to explain how it happened), there is only the one dinosaur ever shown on screen, with the same guy in a suit popping up over and over to play the part of all the different ones encountered. Much of the film takes place at night, and the creature is never shown fully on screen, but even so it doesn't always look great. I see that as intentional though, as there is an obvious vein of humour running throughout It's Not A Wolf. Maybe not so good is the lack of much blood or gore, characters near entirely die off screen, the most we get is a bloodied man that the duo encounter.

I was looking forward to seeing this movie, and having now seen it I can say that it didn't really disappoint. With a more serious tone than expected (though still very silly at times), this Italian creature feature entertained, despite a few pacing issues. It's Not A Wolf is available now on Blu-ray from VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment.

SCORE:

The Omen (2006) - Horror Film Review

It is complete. Around twelve years ago my girlfriend at the time brought me The Omen: Pentology box set from HMV. This five film collection included the four original films (The Omen, Damien: Omen II, Omen 3: The Final Conflict, Omen IV: The Awakening) as well as the 2006 remake, and at three o'clock this morning (at the time of writing) I finally got around to watching that remake. I reckon that if I had seen this back then I would not have appreciated it as much, but watching The Omen remake now, I got a real nostalgic hit from a film that is extremely early 2000's in feel. I will try and keep spoilers to a minimum, but part of this review will be comparing it to the classic original.

Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber - X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Scream), an American ambassador is devastated when he learns that his child has died after complications with its birth at a Catholic hospital in Italy. A priest there has a proposal for him however, he says that a woman also at the hospital recently died after the birth of her healthy son, and that to save Robert's wife, Katherine (Julia Stiles - Orphan: First Kill, Save the Last Dance) the heartache of learning her child has died, should claim this child for his own. The man decides to go along with this, but little does he know that the baby is actually the Antichrist, the son of Satan who is prophesied to bring doom to the world of man. It is on the child's fifth birthday that events begin to be put in motion, and it isn't long before Robert has reluctantly teamed up with press photographer Keith (David Thewlis - The Sandman TV series, the Harry Potter series of films) in order to investigate for sure if his son really is a creation of Hell, after being warned by Father Brennan (Pete Postlethwaite - Inception, The Usual Suspects) about the deception.

This John Moore (A Good Day to Die Hard, Max Payne) directed horror remake plays it very safe with the story and how particular events play out, so much so that the poor screenwriter wasn't even credited, due to his screenplay being so similar to David Seltzer's (who wrote the screenplay for the 1976 original). Part of the reason I had left this so long to watch is that I didn't want vivid memories of the original clouding my opinion of this. That worked to a degree, I knew all the story beats, but I couldn't really recall how the original looked. Some things are done better, some less so, and unifying this is the peak 2000's feel. Firstly, some of the death sequences look fantastic, better than the original.
Bizarrely, the most memorable death scene for the original film (a character getting pinned to the ground from a falling piece of church masonry) looks quite bad here, due to the obvious replacement of the actor with a fake body that the camera lingers on for too long. Thankfully other death scenes are better replicated, a person compelled to commit suicide has an identical scene but it looks more visceral, and the iconic decapitation scene delighted by occuring in a slightly different way than in the original.

The 2000's seemed a bit of a dark time for me in regards to horror films, it felt like every classic movie was getting a subpar and needless remake, and I'm sure I would have felt scorn for this back then (I do recall seeing the trailer at the cinema). In modern day however I am at the stage in my life where I feel quite intense nostalgia for bygone decades, and seeing Schreiber and Stiles (someone I've always had a crush on) in a movie together was delightful, it took me back to the feeling of that decade. Being set in that time period there has been some alterations to make this more current, such as 9/11 and the Columbia space shuttle disaster of 2003 perhaps tastelessly being injected into some of the portents for the rise of the Antichrist. My biggest issue came with some of the actors chosen to play the roles. Now, I think David Lewlis was simply stunning in The Sandman, his acting there was very impressive, but here...not so much. Whether it was the actor or his direction, his portrayal of a press photographer is extremely generic and stereotypical, with the man distractingly always chewing gum and forever squinting his eyes. I struggled to take this character seriously, which is a problem when he becomes an essential side character. As for the previously mentioned Schreiber and Stiles, I could watch both of those in anything, even if here they aren't particularly memorable characters. Other notable actors includes Mia Farrow (Rosemary's Baby) as the evil nanny, and Michael Gambon (the Harry Potter series) in a very brief appearance, and of course you have Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as the five year old Damien, someone who at the very least has a decent ability to give a malice filled stare. The ending shot may be identical, but it is just as effective here.

Demonic possession films are one of my favourite horror genres, so this is kind of in a similar ballpark. It is a film that has improved with age, if only for it being such a snapshot of the time period it was created in. On the other hand, being so extremely similar to the original it felt a bit pointless, I've never really understood remakes that try and be identical to the film they were based on, I feel if you must make a remake then at least put your own darn spin on it! Complaints aside, I did enjoy The Omen, not essential by any means, but it was entertaining enough to watch.

SCORE:

The Guest Room (2021) - Horror Film Review

The Guest Room (also known simply as The Room), is an Italian horror film directed by, and with a story written by Stefano Lodovichi. From the captivating and mysterious opening I was desperate to find out where the story would go to next. Where it eventually ended up was somewhere I did not expect in the slightest.

Stella (Camilla Filippi - Deep in the Wood) is on the verge of suicide early one morning when she is interrupted by an unexpected knock at the door of her home. Answering it she encounters a stranger (Guido Caprino), a man who insists he has made a reservation and requesting she let him in from the storm raging outside. With her house no longer being a guest house she figures there must have been some mistake, yet at the mention of her husband, Sandro (Edoardo Pesce) having arranged it her guard is dropped and she allows him in. Stella becomes increasingly wary of the stranger's bizarre and controlling behaviour, and things come to a head when Sandro appears. Her husband has no idea who the man is either, but before anything else can happen, the stranger knocks them both out. They awaken tied to chairs, with the man claiming that the reason he is there is to punish Sandro for sins he has committed.

From the opening shot of a visibly distressed Stella wearing her wedding outfit, staring out of a wide open window as rain pours down on her face I was hooked. This was a film which really benefited from me having no idea how it would play out. There are a handful of characters but it is the main three who get almost the entirety of the screen time. Over the course of the movie secrets are slowly fed out, revealing why Stella was ready to kill herself, what evils her separated husband had done, and just who the stranger is. None of those reveals was underwhelming, it felt like a jigsaw puzzle slowly being constructed, so that by the end a clear picture linking all elements of the film could be seen. It becomes unclear at times just what is occuring, you have Stella thinking that maybe her suicide attempt had been successful and that she was in the afterlife, there is an apparent child of Stella and Sandro yet who is never shown, remaining possibly hidden behind a locked door, and the strange man's unbelievable story. It was all fed to the viewer in such an enthralling way.

Demonia (1990) - Horror Film Review

Lucio Fulci is a legendary Italian horror director responsible for such films as Don't Torture a Duckling, Zombie Flesh Eaters and City of the Living Dead. I haven't seen too many of his films so jumped at a chance to get to see his 1990 horror Demonia. This film has been said to be one of his worst, the 4.6/10 rating on IMDB might attest to that. Despite a bit of a muddled story this was plenty enough enjoyable.

While at a séance, Liza Harris (Meg Register) has a vision of a group of nuns in the 15th Century being dragged into a hidden temple and crucified by an angry mob. Several months later Liza is on an archaeological dig in Sicily and realises that the nearby ruins of an old monastery is the same place from her visions. She is warned about going into the place due to the superstitious locals wanting to keep people out of there, but she ignores the warnings. During her exploration she discovers a secret chamber in which she finds the skeletal remains of the crucified nuns. Liza becomes obsessed with finding out exactly what happened. Meanwhile, people begin to die in mysterious ways, seemingly caused by a ghostly nun.

Demonia combines elements of both the demonic and nunsploitation sub-genres of horror. This was a really easy film to watch, so much so that it was over halfway through its ninety minute run time that I realised how much of the film had passed. The story is the weakest element, but to me that wasn't an issue. There wasn't much of a story with the events mostly inferred and merged with repeating flashbacks to the crucifixions from the prologue. The Fulci films I have seen have always had a dreamlike quality to them, this was no different at all. The cruel and unusual way people die in the film added to this feeling. Especially with some of the victims who meet their end most suddenly. My favourite was a man out looking for his missing child, one scene he is perfectly fine, then the next time we see him a minute or so later he has inexplicably gotten caught up in some convoluted rope trap that when activated completely rips him in half down the middle!

Resurrection Corporation (2021) - Animated Comedy Horror Film Review

Resurrection Corporation is an Italian animated comedy horror film that was directed by Alberto Genovese (Sick Sock Monsters from Outer Space), with the story and screenplay written by Mattia De Pascali (Beyond the Omega). From the stark black and white nihilistic world the inspirations behind this are not too hard to figure out. The story does have some nice ideas behind it but there were certain aspects that didn't really sit right with me. The version of the film I watched had an English dub so I can't comment on the performances of the original voice actors.

Dottor Caligari has a problem and that is that he is a coffin maker in a town where no one ever dies. This is thanks to the Resurrection Corporation, ran by Potriantow, his company using secret means is able to bring back to life anyone in the town who dies. After his attempts to compete with him fail, Caligari and his assistant Bruta (a woman it is insinuated the Dottor created himself) head away to a remote castle where Potriantow's mentor is said to live. It is there they hope to learn the methods by which Potriantow is able to perform his trade.

The first noticeable thing about this film is its basic animation. In a post South Park world this isn't an issue and was one area that I think this really got right, there is some interesting directing meaning that everything isn't always shown from side on, but includes things coming into the screen as well . With some of the more disgusting parts (such as a room full of skinned corpses) this reminded me a bit of the style of David Firth. Keeping with that vibe this isn't a children's movie, there is some extreme (animated) violence with characters murdered and beaten including at least a couple of decapitations. I was totally fine with that, what didn't sit so well was the sexual abuse, mainly of Bruta. There was one uncomfortable scene where she is being molested, another bizarrely played for laughs where someone is trying to rape her. I didn't really get this character, she was treated as if she wasn't a real person, and she never reacts in a realistic way to her bad treatment.

Doggo and the Shotguns Choir (2018) - Film Review

Doggo and the Shotguns Choir is a surreal Italian film that was an abrasive mix-up between two different styles of film. Directed and co-written by Paolo Treviso (Crappy Toilet) this was a hard film to follow, though admittedly mainly due to the fact the screener I watched for review featured no English subtitles. I had to try and piece together the intent from the acting, and what was shown on screen. I have seen non subtitled Turkish horrors before (Baskin), and non subtitled Spanish horrors before (Omnivores), but this was my first Italian one. The plot summary is pieced together from what I gathered was going on.

There are two different stories playing out over Doggo and the Shotguns Choir, initially these seem very unrelated but as both the plots play out they begin to show certain similarities in the themes present. In modern day, and shot in black and white, a freak show attraction known as 'Doggo' escapes his cruel captors and heads to the nearby city where he becomes befriended by a blind woman seeking companionship. Elsewhere, and in colour, seemingly in Wild West times, a lone cowboy goes on a bloody path of vengeance to get revenge for the woman he loved.

This was a movie of two halves, with the two very distinct stories playing out over the top of each other. If this had purely been the Western story I would have loved this I feel. This part of the movie gave me real nostalgia for the classics, and most keenly a yearning to go back and watch El Mariachi. That may not be set in olden times like this part of the film seemed to be, yet both shared a similar feel in how the story basically plays out. Much of this story features the lone gunman walking through a gully, encountering various people who I imagine were hallucinations. There was a light art house feel that could be seen through characters whose clothing changes between shots. My favourite parts of this were the gun duels, all the classic Western tropes like close ups of characters eyes, and their twitching hands as they go for their guns. In particular the finale here was excellent, taking place by a sunflower field, and featuring an element that was very unexpected (and which I loved). The camera work here was lovely to see.

Creepy Tales of Pizza and Gore (2014) - Horror Anthology Film Review

Creepy Tales of Pizza and Gore is an Italian horror anthology from director Lorenzo Fassina. All good anthologies, whether they be written or on film, require a decent concept to tie the stories together, and with this one you have a couple. The biggest one is that there is not a single line of dialogue to be found here. Each of the five short films play out with no speech, the only noises characters make being screams, groans or growls. Due to this it can be enjoyed universally as the shorts are shown in a way that are very easy to understand. Also joining these together is the punk like attitude, the shorts all share a visual style and sound that brought that whole ethic to life.

There is vaguely a wraparound story for these five films, before each one starts a demonic creature growls a couple of lines of dialogue. I'm assuming what it is saying was a made up language, I guess it could have been Italian, but the screener didn't have the option of subtitles, and going by the fact none of the shorts have any speaking I'm assuming it wasn't saying anything intelligible. 

The first proper short is Screaming Ghost. In this one a man browsing his laptop receives a message telling him to listen to an audio file. He does so and hears just screaming, but alarmed by the static image for the file seeming to move he quickly turns it off. Later that night a ghostly figure leaves the file and starts to haunt the man. I liked the effects used for the ghost in this one, it looked effective and cool. I also liked the facial expressions of the ghost, he really seemed to be in to his performance. With the cartoon like text titling this, and the over the top gore effects used this set a precedent for what to was to come.

Devil of the Night was the second film, and this one was my least favourite. Here a skateboarder finds himself kidnapped by a serial killer, the killer appears to want to sacrifice the man as part of some sort of Satanic ritual. The gore was in full effect again here, and were some nice moments. My problem with this one is that there wasn't much of a story at all, so it felt a bit aimless, fizzling out rather than doing much else.

Stomach (2019) - Horror Film Review

Stomach is an Italian body horror that comes from Alex Visani (The Pyramid, Mindcreep) who both wrote, directed and did a lot of other jobs here. I'm not usually one for body horrors, and this one tells a story that for much of the running time was a bit abstract and hard to get my head around, however it was well made and I liked where this went.

Alex (Fabio Carlani) is a loner who hides a terrible secret. There is something not right with his stomach, and certainly not a normal medical condition. When his darkest emotions get too much for him they physically manifest in the form of a demonic stomach creature (Carlani also). Alex keeps himself to himself and works small menial jobs, however an incident at his work place results in the demon once again manifesting. Alex finds himself on a desperate race against time to stop his monster before it gets to the objects of his desires, a woman he works with named Anna (Ingrid Monacelli).

Stomach is a bloody reimagining of the classic Jekyll and Hyde story. Alex himself is meek and timid, but instead of turning into a monster his ugly side manifests to commit the deeds he would not dream of. Due to this duality of the two beings there was an almost arthouse style contrast between their actions. While the demon is out killing and raping, Alex is shown to be at home, writhing around in agony. The way the character acts makes for a protagonist who isn't that likeable, but with such an odd story he needed to be odd himself. The story is very low key in that it takes place over the course of a few days and is restricted to just a handful of characters. Stomach can be quite a nasty film, and this is shown with such things as multiple rape scenes, one of which was particularly nasty to watch. There are no strong female characters here, all of them are shown to be either subservient to the male figures in their lives, or to be dominated physically by the male characters. To be fair though there are also no good male characters here, a variety of abusive and mean spirited ones populate Stomach.

The Lord Doesn't Hate You (2019) - Horror Film Review

Award winning The Lord Doesn't Hate You (Dio Non Ti Odia) is an Italian indie horror that is just oozing with atmosphere despite the low budget. It was directed by Fabrizio La Monica and is available both in colour and in black and white. The screener I had was the black and white version, which is fortuitous as that is the directors preferred version of the film.

This takes place in the middle ages and follows a man (Roberto Romano) who has taken his daughter (Emilia Passalacqua) on a journey into the mountains near to their village. The girl is sick, and there is a legend of a wise woman who lives at the top of the mountain who will be able to cure her. That is at least initially what appears to be going on. After the first act however the motive of this pilgrimage is brought into question, with revelations of a more sinister reason for the journey.

This is nearly evenly split into three acts. The first half hour is the man and his daughter and their travels. The prologue shows this same man, at some point in the future tied to a stake as villagers watch on, and so I was eager to see just what would happen for this to come to pass. The second act I found more frustrating, it went nearly into art house territory with even less dialogue, not an exaggeration to say this is quite a slow burn. Then for the third act a lot of questions are answered, and a key scene missing from the middle of the movie plays out to wrap everything up. The black and white perfectly went with this tortured journey, the forests and hills, as well as the basic, yet very well fitting mournful soundtrack all complimented each other very well.

Cripta (2019) - Teen Horror Film Review

Being slightly hungover on a Sunday I sat down to watch Marco Lui's Cripta, which I had assumed was a horror film. By the zany style and very low stakes it soon become clear this was something aimed at teens, and that to be honest it isn't horror. This is edutainment dressed up as a film, it is also a religious film, while not preachy at all, it does assume that the teachings of Christianity are true.

Cripta centres around six teen archaeology students who study their topic via web cam sessions with their professor. One day they sit down to do their class as usual but are instead met with a stranger. He informs the teens that their professor has been kidnapped and that if they want to free him they must play a game. So far so Saw. The intruder displays his powers by hypnotising the boys and manipulating the emotions of the girls, then he warns them if they fail the game they will die. The game is based on religious dogma, and centres mainly on the idea of baptism.

I guess it was good timing that I ended up watching a religious film on a Sunday. This is in Italian with English subtitles. Due to the subject matter it was quite hard to keep up with what was being spoken about, even in English that would have been hard to follow. The subtitles are ok, though on many occasions the subtitles seemed slightly wrong, and so I had to rearrange words and spellings in my head for them to make sense. I seem to remember one example being 'flash and bones' rather than 'flesh and bones'. This was nostalgic in a fashion as it reminded me of being back at school watching those programs that try and make the learning fun, as I said in my intro; edutainment.

Die Zombiejäger (2005) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Die Zombiejäger is a Swedish zombie film directed and co-written by Jonas Wolcher (Cannibal Fog). It very much reminded me of the low budget zombie films of the 1990's as it doesn't attempt to tell much of a story, has zombie makeup that goes all over the place in terms of quality, and has heavy rock music play whenever the fighting begins. Loving films about the undead as much as I do I can get on board with this type of messy film making, one of the things I often say with regards to zombie movies is that they fall into one of the genres when more often than not bad makeup actually benefits the picture, quantity over quality I think and here you have quite a few of the undead.

The plot for this is really quite simple, basically there has been a zombie outbreak in Gothenburg. The affected area has been contained and the government have hired three German mercenaries to come in and clear up the mess, so Heinrich, Dieter and Ivo arrive on scene to kill some zombies and along the way uncover a plot that may be far more outreaching than what first appears.

This is a very old school indie zombie flick in that outside of people battling the undead in a variety of cool ways there is not much going on. There are a couple of sub plots but they are mostly inconsequential with it all just being an excuse to battle lots of zombies. Most the film focuses on the three German mercenaries and they have many many fight scenes which usually follow the format of a shot of them firing their weapons and then the camera showing the effect the attack has on the relevant zombie. There are not many parts of the fighting that deviates from this particular style of film making and so there can be a bit of a loss in motion. However I never got bored of these fight scenes, there is a grindhouse/B-movie vibe with the desaturated look making everything seem slightly unreal. I never got bored of the low angle shots of the zombies with the sky usually attractively positioned behind them. There are plenty of guns used, as well as throwing stars and a stick. It was nice to see the CGI was limited, certainly never a moment where I felt things looked digitally fake with most the effects seeming to be practical ones. There are lots of moments of zombies eating random bits of flesh, even eating from their own wounds they have had inflicted.

Anger of the Dead (2013) - Short Zombie Horror Film Review

Earlier in the year I wrote a small news post about Anger of the Dead, I have had the pleasure of watching the film now. It is an Italian short zombie film clocking in at around fifteen minutes, directed by Francesco Picone.

Alice and Nicholas are in a café where Alice is about to tell her husband some important news. Interrupted by a commotion at a nearby table they see a girl has transformed into a hideous demonic zombie and is chomping down on her boyfriends throat. Cut forward to the future and full on zombie apocalypse has occurred. Alice and Nicholas are on a bridge gathering supplies from the numerous abandoned vehicles left there when zombies attack, their troubles seem to be over when a heavily armed biker appears, but are the zombies the danger they should be most worried about?

First off I love the look of the zombies in this film, all the zombies have almost demonic features, their features twisted into a parody of human rage, they certainly live up to the title 'Anger of the Dead'. They are runners, but also they are not very clever and so easy to avoid and also are easily distracted by noise. A lot of action occurs here, fast, kinetic shots of zombies charging mixed up with focused gun fire and some brutal close combat, the whole bridge scene is quite enjoyable.

The biggest complaint I have to say of this film is that it is a shame the English subtitles are not very well translated, usually you can guess what they should say but at one point when there is quite a big story reveal I couldn't actually work out what it was as it got very lost in translation. The characters in the piece obviously don't get much time to develop but the actors seem to do a good job, the biker (Alex Lucchesi) was the most interesting character, he really stood out as a force to be reckoned with. Special mention must also go to the fantastic music by Riccardo Lacono, reminded me of 1980's zombie flicks which is a very good thing!

Anger of the Dead looks great, has some cool zombie action and was fun to watch, is just a shame the subtitles were below average. The plot is quite traditional (humans are always the real monsters) but it did the job.

SCORE:

BloodRayne: Betrayal (2011) - Horror Videogame Review (XBLA)

The original BloodRayne games were wonky third person actioners that had you fighting mostly Nazi soldiers. I was initially put off by BloodRayne: Betrayal as it reminds me of the death of my interest in the Joystiq Podcast which imploded after a disastrous change in style, due to the game being an item in that very tedious first episode. Anyway having played the demo and seeing the game in a sale I picked it up.

BloodRayne: Betrayal sees you (playing as half vampire Rayne) joining a group of vampire hunter soldiers called 'The Brimstone Society' in assaulting an underground castle of vampires. Starting above ground you eventually get to the castle in a mix of 2D platforming and fighting.

BloodRayne: Betrayal is very reminiscent of old Castlevania games back when they were level based. Everything from the Gothic look, down to the dramatic music really invoke the spirit of those classic games. The setting of a vampire's castle is also super similar. None of this is a bad thing, I love the Castlevania series so a pretender to the throne is very welcome.

Being a half vampire you are allergic to light, in the early levels there are UV lamps set up that drain your health if you get near them, these only feature in the first few levels though. More could have been done to incorporate these into the game I feel. A lot of the enemies you fight can have their blood sucked out. This makes you invincible during the sucking as well as restores lost health. Enemies consist of Aryan looking vampires, as well as clawed monsters, floating mummies and even giant walking bubbles filled with blood. There is not a lot of different enemies types but combat is quite a detailed affair with enemies having different abilities and weaknesses. Usually when you encounter enemies the game will limit you to a single screen until a few waves of them have been dispatched.

The game looks beautiful, like something out of an anime. There is plenty of blood, and the animations are great, especially the vampires who appear in the foreground before leaping into the game; very smoothly done. Boss battles are usually against giant monsters and quite fun, one in particular that was made out of blood looked really good.

Levels unfortunately do get repetitive, you would think with a whole castle(vania) to explore there would be variety but a lot of the levels look very similar. A section of levels see you traversing pits of acid, while others see you with rivers of blood but all play quite similar. Levels are full of traps from rotating blades to spikes, lasers and collapsing platforms. These require quite a degree of mobile skill to get past but in a good move enemies are not resistant to the traps so can get minced up, burnt up and drown just the same as you. Some sections see you go into silhouette which might look good but makes finding where you are on screen quite confusing. The last level set in a burning castle is a nightmare due just to the fact that it is really hard to see where you are located on screen.

Hidden around levels are skulls that let you increase your health and bullets in your gun (a special weapon), and there are some sections when you control a raven that gives some variety. You later get the ability to turn into a bird at will but this is severely restricted by the arrival of machines dotted everywhere that stop you being able to change; begs the question what's the point of giving you that ability if the designers blatantly didn't want you to be able to use it? The plot is bare bones and not interesting, mostly told by a series of speech bubbles coming out of characters mouths

For all its issues I did enjoy BloodRayne: Betrayal, it is just a shame that it is barren when it comes to variety, more interesting locations, and a greater number of enemy types would have made the game a lot better.

SCORE: