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.

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The Well (2023) - Horror Film Review

The Well is an Italian horror film that comes from Federico Zampaglione (Shadow), who both wrote and directed this. He has been dubbed 'the Italian Rob Zombie' and that is a moniker that really fits as even before reading that I was reminded of that director's work while watching this gruesome slaughter-fest. While this just misses out on being a fantastic film, there is still plenty to enjoy here.

Lisa (Lauren LaVera - Terrifier 2, Clinton Road) is an American art restorer who has been contracted to head to a remote Italian village in order to restore a 15th century painting that a rich duchess is in possession of. She is told the painting recently received smoke damage and that it is essential it is restored within a fortnight as it is due to be sold at an auction. The more she works on the creepy painting, the more disturbing nightmares and hallucinations she gets, but is compelled to ignore her instincts and carry on the work for fear of her father's business being ruined by breaking the terms of the contract.
On the way to the village Lisa had befriended some botanists who had planned to camp out in the nearby forest to conduct some research. Elsewhere, things went bad for them, as on their first night camping they are all captured by an unseen person. The three, Tony (Gianluigi Galvani), Tracy (Taylor Zaudtke - The Leech) and Madison (Courage Osabohine) awaken to find themselves imprisoned in an underground cell which faces onto a large well. Their brutally sadistic mute jailor systematically begins to slaughter them, in order to feed them to a monstrous creature that dwells at the bottom of the well.
Needless to say, these two separate events are more linked than at first it might appear.

The most striking part of The Well are the nasty stomach churning special effects. Thankfully, these special effects are all practical (apart from one key scene during the finale), and they look horrific in the best possible way. Among the visual horrors are some strong almost torture porn moments of victims really being made to suffer. Limbs are hacked off, an eyeball is raked out, a rusty nail goes through a foot, someone is pinned to a door by a crossbow bolt, and some poor unfortunate even has the skin peeled off their face! The mute and mentally unstable jailor really felt like he stepped out of a Rob Zombie movie, while there are some nightmarish moments that Lisa suffers through. The creature design for the thing in the well was great, I admit it did initially remind me a bit of Gollum from The Lord of The Rings, but the more you saw of it, the more I came to appreciate how horrid it looked. 

The cast were mostly great, I thought that the duchess' teenage daughter Giulia (Linda Zampaglione) was one of the weakest links, the petulant rebellious teenager came across as a bit one dimensional, making for not that compelling a character. With most the characters here, the less you know about them the better, it is only really Lisa herself who gets some character development. Special mention goes to Melanie Gaydos as Dorka, her expressive turn during the culmination of the movie was so cool to see, putting the other actors in that particular scene to slight shame.
 As always with cursed painting horrors, the art needed to look effectively dark, and here the painting was ace. A slight possible plot issue might have occurred should Lisa had chosen to work on a different part of the painting than she did at the start. I found Lisa's story the less interesting of the two going on, but I enjoyed how they linked together. It did lead to an epilogue that was a little bit cheesy, the plot in general had some good moments to it, but I would be lying if I said that any of the revelations that occur were that surprising to see.

I thought The Well was really well made. The locations all looked very dusty and grimy, the special effects were gruesomely delightful, and I found myself invested in the events of the movie. Only really let down by a couple of generic characters, and an epilogue that I wasn't that sure about. The Well had its UK premiere at Frightfest in Glasgow on 9th March.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Shadows (2020) - Post-Apocalyptic Film Review

Shadows is an Irish-Italian post-apocalyptic thriller which features only the three characters. Directed by Carlo Lavagna (Arianna), this slow-burn builds up for an interesting character piece whose twists may be predictable, but still remains mostly intriguing. It also does something interesting by flipping the 'bad things happen in the dark' trope on its head.

Teenagers Alma (Mia Threapleton) and her younger sister Alex (Lola Petticrew) live in a remote hotel in the middle of a forest with their domineering mother (Saskia Reeves - Slow Horses TV series, Luther TV series). At some point in the past the world fell into ruin, with nature reclaiming the cities, and the sun becoming so dangerous that to go outside in daylight would be lethal. The hotel and it's surrounding trees are all the two girls have ever known. It has reached a point where the two siblings have begun to fight back against their mother's strict rules, and with her increasingly erratic behaviour, they begin to think that maybe they would be better off leaving, with the hope that they may discover other survivors of this post apocalyptic world.

With just the three characters this was never going to be a thrill ride. Instead, over the course of roughly a hundred minutes the focus is on the deteriorating relationship between the three. By wanting to protect her girls from the dangers of the world, the mother  has caused an increasing rebellious streak in Alex, not helped by her behaviour, with possible signs of early onset dementia in the woman. Alma is split, believing her mother's intentions to be good, but not able to bear being split up from her sister. The film as a whole felt it was a metaphor for growing up, with the setting of the remote warren-like hotel, it came to feel like it was one big nest which the sisters had outgrown. The question becomes if it is better to stay somewhere safe and secure, or to take a risk into the unknown. The three actors all do good jobs, I sometimes felt the more dramatic moments of high energy didn't quite feel as good as the more downbeat introspective moments, but I was hooked for the journey. With the mother you have a presence who haunts every scene, even when she is not around, the two siblings remain terrified of doing anything to upset her, at least with Alma. This makes tense scenes where they go into areas of the hotel they have been told not to visit all the more thrilling. With secret peep-holes hidden around the building, and a reluctance from the mother to speak the full truth at any point, there is a growing sense of unease with her.

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.

Dead Bride (2022) - Horror Film Review

Dead Bride (written and directed by Francesco Picone (Age of the Dead, Anger of the Dead) is an indie horror that you can tell deeply wishes it was Insidious. As the film went on, and once I had gotten used to the bizarre dubbed voicework, the similarities to that classic just grew and grew. Despite an unremarkable story however this was still strangely enjoyable.

After her father commits suicide, Alyson (Jennifer Mischiati - Curse of the Blind Dead) inherits his family home. She had been put up for adoption from a young age and so the house brings with it plenty of bittersweet memories from before that happened. She recalls that her mother had suffered an affliction, something which led to her early death and which resulted in her father giving Alyson up for adoption. It isn't long after moving into the home with her baby and husband Richard (Christoph Hülsen) that Alyson begins to experience unsettling phenomenon. Her search leads her to Father Elbert (Sean James Sutton - Almost Dead) and the discovery of the unnatural curse that has been placed on her bloodline.

From the very start there was something that sounded really bizarre to my ears, I quickly realised that the voice work is all dubbed in. This led to not only dialogue that sounded far too loud, but also that the delivery was terrible. Nearly every character sounded like they were enunciating their lines to an incredible degree, this resulted in characters either sounding very condescending or like they were doing voice over work for an advert. Being an Italian film I assume the natural dialogue was in Italian, I really wish it had been kept that way as it created a film whose atmosphere was constantly being eroded by the prim and proper delivery of lines, which didn't appear to take into account the scenes they were being spoken in.
Even without this bad choice there were not a lot of good characters. Alyson was perfectly fine as the protagonist, I also thought the characters of Father Elbert and the paranormal expert (Douglas Dean - Song of the Fly) were not bad. Others though, such as Richard were terrible. He comes across as a gas lighter, and it is established that he has not only had an affair in the past, but that that affair is secretly carrying on in the present. That particular subplot goes absolutely nowhere however, with the strife between him and Alyson seemingly forgotten about by the film's conclusion. 

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!

Happy Times (2019) - Comedy Horror Film Review

The Michael Mayer directed and co-written horror comedy Happy Times takes the concept of a family gathering gone wrong and ramps everything up to eleven. It is funny, farcical, but also bloody with a feel of comedy slapstick with real world consequences.

A Jewish family are having a Shabbat dinner at the mansion of Sigal (Liraz Chamami) and her husband Yossi (Ido Mor - Iron Man) in the Hollywood Hills. It is a typical set-up of various family members all holding their own grudges and grievances with each other. Over the course of the meal things start to escalate until finally with the onset of violence the dysfunctional group implode and over the course of a few hours tear themselves apart.

Families having terrible gatherings has been done so many times in all manner of genre types over the years. Here the mix of humour and horror works well. This may be a comedy, and is indeed laugh out loud funny at times, but Happy Times doesn't shy away from showing some quite brutal looking scenes. An overall criticism I guess is that this is a one trick pony when it comes to the flow of the movie. Once this settles into a rhythm it stays there all the way to its inevitable conclusion. The moment to moment action though remained engaging throughout, seeing the various family members forming shaky alliances with each other and it never being exactly clear which character is going to end up as the next victim. 

War of the Dead (2011) - Zombie Horror Film Review

I don't quite know why Nazis and zombies go so well together. I guess with that group being a universally agreed upon real life villain from history (agreed upon by sane people at least), and with their record of performing horrific experiments on prisoners it isn't a big leap to have them in a fictional setting creating the living dead. Writer and director, Marko Makilaakso's (It Came from the Desert) War of the Dead has all the required elements to create a fun zombie horror, yet there is something missing from this to cement it as a classic of the genre.

It is 1941 and the world is at war. Captain Martin Stone (Andrew Tiernan - 300, 300: Rise of an Empire) is in command of a platoon of American soldiers who have teamed up with a platoon of Finnish soldiers in order to locate and destroy a secret German bunker hidden deep in a Russian forest. After encountering and killing a group of Nazi soldiers they think their troubles are over for the time being. However, they are shocked to find their enemies didn't stay dead for long, returning as near unstoppable walking corpses. With the majority of their respective platoons decimated, the only two survivors, Captain Stone and Lieutenant Laakso (Mikko Leppilampi), along with a Russian soldier they stumble across (Samuel Vauramo), and a scared civilian woman decide to press on and try to finish their objective, pursued by the reanimated dead from both sides.

After a prologue showing a prisoner being experimented on the film opens with a black screen of text filling in some context. It then wastes no time in throwing the viewer straight into the action. Because of this there wasn't any time given to develop characters and I spent the entire first third of the movie not only struggling to make out characters from each other, but also finding it hard to determine which side was which due to the clothing everyone was wearing looking the same. Due to this I found my attention wondering away more than once and I admit because of this I missed the key aim of the soldiers in the story. This is a murky film that mostly takes place at night, and with grey and brown locations everything started to bleed into one. It was only really in the third act set in the German bunker itself that I finally began to be able to tell the different characters apart.

The Music Box (2018) - Horror Film Review

The Music Box (Il Carillon to give it it's native title) is an English language Italian horror that was directed and co-written by John Real (Feel the Dead). The story being told here is one that was very familiar, and due to a lack of thrills was also one that became quite tedious to watch.

Annabelle (Rachel Daigh) and her newly orphaned niece, Sophie (Cearl Pepper) have moved into an old Victorian house. Buried in the garden they discover an old box that contained an antique music box. Sophie becomes obsessed with this music box and takes it with her everywhere she goes. Strange things start to occur around Sophie though, objects moving on their own, lights switching on and off, and a ghostly little girl who keeps appearing. Unable to get rid of the box, Annabelle seeks out help to deal with what is becoming apparently clear is a possessed item.

This was quite a dull film and that is down to several factors. Firstly, creepy child films have been done to death so many times before, and this one brings with it nothing original. It all played out so safely that it felt like it was following a formula rather than trying to stand out as a unique horror. Nothing much really happens here from beginning to end. There is a gradual ramping up of the horror, but even by the films finale there isn't really much going on. The ghostly girl appears every now and again but doesn't do much other than standing around before abruptly vanishing. Sophie, who is mute for much of the film had no personality to her character and so I found it hard to care about what happened to her. Annabelle also was a bit of a bland character. The lack of personality from any character here surely helped to keep events boring.

Curse of the Blind Dead (2020) - Zombie Horror Film Preview

I originally intended for this to be a review of Curse of the Blind Dead, however the screener I received was a very rough cut. It contained no music, no sound effects, no audio balancing and no VFX. If it were not for the fact that this was both a zombie film and a new entry in the Blind Dead series I would have skipped this. I couldn't in good conscience treat what I saw as something ready for review and so instead I will treat this as a preview. Amando de Ossorio's 1970's series of Italian films are something quite special. Starting off with Tombs of the Blind Dead, we then got Return of the Blind Dead, The Ghost Galleon and finally Night of the Seagulls. While I am not sure how official this new entry is, it still follows many of the rules that the 70's films had.

It is medieval times and a rogue branch of the Knights Templar are planning on sacrificing a baby to a dark entity. They believe the end of the world is coming, and see the sacrifice as the only thing able to stop that from coming to pass. Before they are able to carry out their plan however they get attacked by an angry mob from a nearby village. The knights are blinded and then burned alive. A long time into the future and an unknown apocalypse has decimated the world. A man (Aaron Stielstra - Age of the Dead) and his heavily pregnant daughter are braving the hostile wasteland in order to reach a thriving settlement they heard about on the radio. However before they reach their destination they are attacked by bandits. They end up saved by a religious sect and taken to their compound. The joy of their rescue is short lived as the sect intend to sacrifice the girl's unborn child to the same entity those Templar's tired to all those hundreds and hundreds of years ago. To facilitate this process those same long dead Knights have risen. They are the blind dead, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their masters goal...

First off, despite my hopes, this was so uncompleted that it became hard to follow at times. I thought inserting these zombies into the apocalypse was a great idea. Undead and the apocalypse are natural bedfellows, but the blind dead are not your typical modern day walking corpses. The blind dead have always looked medieval. They set themselves apart by wielding swords, riding on horseback, wearing medieval hooded robes, and of course being blind. Also, among their weaknesses is sunlight. The original series had them frozen in place when daylight appears, here they evaporate into nothingness. Not a spoiler if you are familiar with the originals as they may be gone, but it is only ever a temporary thing. What was really great about this version of the dead is that they have a supernatural element that makes them near indestructible.

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.

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.

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