House (1986)

Tagline: ‘Ding Dong, You’re Dead!’

UK Running Time: 93 Minutes

Film Quality: 3/5
Gore Content: 2/5
Entertainment Value: 4/5
Originality: 3/5

Introduction

Fresh out of directing parts two and three of the Friday 13th film franchise Steve Miner sat down with the aforementioned franchise’s producer, Sean S. Cunningham, and dusted down a copy of a script for a feature called ‘House’. Wanting to do something different they decided to press ahead with the film as a comedy horror (the studio apparently thought it was going to be played straight!) and started a whole new, though not as successful, franchise.

In a nutshell

Roger Cobb, a successful author of horror movies, has writer’s block. Separated from his wife following the mysterious disappearance of their only son and suffering from Vietnam flashbacks, he decides on a change of scene and moves in to the house he grew up in, belonging to his recently deceased Aunt. Soon discovering the house is haunted, can he get the answers he needs about his son’s disappearance and redemption for his time in ‘nam.

What’s good about it?

I won’t have been the first for whom Steve Miner’s minor classic was their first experience of a horror film and, watching it back, I was surprised at how well made it is. The opening tracking shot of the titular house is excellent, utilising a crane and Steadicam to really explore the exterior before a grocery boy with a food delivery affords us reason to follow him and explore the interior. It’s very well done and, despite the obvious low budget, we can see the movie is in safe hands with Miner who knows his onions.

Secondly it has a very good cast. William Katt (left) wouldn’t be many horror directors first choice as a lead, yes he was in ‘Carrie’ but was a bit of a wet lettuce, however he’s very likeable and, thanks to a flashback scene early on involving a phone conversation with his estranged wife, you warm to his predicament very quickly. Susan French, who has a small role as his batshit mental Aunt, is suitable wacky, Michael Ensign plays a great turn as a real estate guy and George Wendt, best known as Norm from ‘Cheers’ is wonderful as Cobb’s next door neighbour and a great comic turn.

Scared the hell out of me as a kid!

As I said before, this was probably one of the first ‘proper’ horror films I ever saw and by that I mean it has some genuine scares in it. Our first encounter with a ghost is quite early on and it sets the tone for a few creepy scenes, especially as Cobb is alone in the house and we’ve all had the creeps whilst alone haven’t we? We have stuffed animals coming to life, monsters bursting out of closets (a great analogue effect) and the one that gave me nightmares was the Doctor Who style ‘man in a monster suit’ who takes the place of his wife. The prosthetics in this film really freaked me out in my young, tender years with exaggerated, monstrous features and the ‘Sandywitch’ (above, right) as it was apparently known, particularly unnerved me with her grotesque appearance and high pitched voice.

It doesn’t exactly strike a perfect balance between horror and comedy, it works as a comedy on a much higher level than the horror. You have to enjoy the scene with Katt and Werdt as they wait for the monster to come back out of the closet, Werdt absolutely terrified at the thought that it might be a Raccoon! However, it still has some atmosphere with a surprising amount to say about madness, the nature of obsession and how traumatic events from your past can shape the delicate nature of a fragile psyche. That doesn’t sound like fun but believe me, it is!

What about the bad?

I was less than convinced by the Vietnam scenes which kind of resembles somebody’s overgrown back garden with a few fake trees dotted around…of course it’s a little harsh to be over-critical of low budget films for not shooting on location in South East Asia and, though important to the plot, it’s not a central part of the film in terms of building tension and ghostly visuals. The budget was around $3million and most of that was spent on the impressive prosthetic effects and a number of alterations to what was a real house.

Any themes?

For a comedy it deals with some very serious themes. In the early 80s, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome was being attributed as the cause for erratic behaviour and rage in Vietnam war veterans. Cobb is clearly suffering from some form of temporary insanity, brought about by the very real haunting and the book that he’s writing about his experiences in Vietnam. His neighbour recognises his erratic behaviour and shows concern by calling his estranged wife and, already aware that his Aunt was a couple of boats short of a regatta, there is a high level of insanity and anxiety running through the core of this film.

Katt plays this aspect of Cobb’s character surprisingly well, particularly the scene involving the police, and having a foil with the comic chops of Wendt to bounce off, he can over-egg the insanity and let Wendt ground the scene with humour. You don’t quite know what’s real and what’s not because Cobb doesn’t, and knowing that he’s suffering the consequences of a double trauma, can we trust what’s in front of our/Cobb’s eyes? The house does appear to be a metaphor for the madness than runs in his family, past present and future with paintings and flashbacks holding the key to the puzzle in Cobb’s head.

This insanity is emphasised by the film’s obsession with doubles, the monstrous and the normal. We have two versions of his wife (beautiful actress and monstrous witch), two versions of Big Ben (Vietnam buddy and reanimated corpse), two versions of the house (pre and post midnight), effectively two versions of Cobb (present day and flashback) and it’s no coincidence that the answer to the puzzle lies beyond the bathroom mirror, the reflection of reality.

Release History

Nothing controversial and no censorship issues. It performed reasonably well at the box office and very strongly on VHS, it got a special edition dvd release with commentary and making of featurette but no blu-ray release as yet. Arrow Video have announced such a release for US and European territories but no specs as yet, however based on previous releases we can expect previous features and more.

Cultural Impact

The movie spawned three sequels ‘House 2: The Second Story’, ‘House 3: The Horror Show’ and ‘House 4: The Repossession’. The third film has the most unusual history and perhaps I’ll make that the subject of a separate blog review. It has nothing to do with the other parts and was only given the ‘House’ tag in a few countries, including the UK. Perhaps I’lll revisit this one when I inevitably pick up Arrow’s box set!

One piece of notable trivia is that Kane Hodder was the stunt co-ordinator for this film…Hodder would of course go on to be forever associated with Jason Vorhees, playing the role in four of the films in the series.

Final Thoughts

Just like ‘Ghoulies’, this is probably best enjoyed as a nostalgic re-watch rather than appreciated for the first time more than 30 years after it was made. It’s very well put together with some superb acting and, watching it again, much better than I remembered all those years ago. Perhaps that’s partly because there’s more going on in terms of subtext and the psychological elements, though played ultimately for laughs, do have a serious side, which adds a solid foundation on which to build a film that has more substance than most people give it credit for.

Memorable Quote

Harold: “Woman who lived here before you was nuts. Biggest bitch under the sun, just a senile old hag really. Wouldn’t surprise me if someone just got fed up and offed her, know what I mean?”
Cobb: “She was my Aunt.”
Harold: “Heart of gold though, just a saint really…and such a beautiful woman for her age.”

Harold: “Solitude’s always better with somebody else around.”

Big Ben: “Roger, you hit like a little girl.”

Aunt Elizabeth: “It won Roger, it tricked me. I didn’t think it could but it did. It’s going to trick you too Roger. This house knows everything about you, leave while you can.”

Big Ben: “Damn, you rise from the grave and run out of ammunition.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Ghoulies’, ‘The Gate’, ‘Critters’, ‘Cellar Dweller’

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Tagline: “A stunning portrait in psycho terror!”
UK Running Time: 96 minutes

Film Quality: 4/5
Gore Content: 2/5
Entertainment Value: 4/5
Originality: 4.5/5

Introduction

Frustrated at the way other directors had treated some of his work, Italian screenwriter Dario Argento took a stab at adapting his own screenplay. The rest is history as one of Italy and the horror genre’s most enigmatic, flamboyant and talented director’s career went interstellar. As debut’s go it was impressive and earned comparisons with the great Alfred Hitchcock, becoming an international hit and reigniting the Giallo sub-genre that Argento would pretty much make his own for the next 20 years.

In a nutshell

A writer witnesses an attempted murder but can’t shake the feeling that he has either missed or forgotten a vital visual detail that is preventing him from identifying the killer. Caught in a game of cat and mouse with a serial killer who begins to target his girlfriend and himself, he must find that elusive detail before he becomes the next victim.

So what’s good about it?

Throughout Argento’s career he’s faced the criticism of style over substance and that he can’t work with actors or dialogue so it probably makes sense that he was destined to find greater success behind the camera rather than in front of the typewriter. However, his debut feature is remarkably coherent, follows logical threads with realistic dialogue and believable motivation. Faced with the trauma of witnessing an attempted murder, who wouldn’t be so overwhelmed that they’d convince themselves they’ve missed a vital part of the puzzle. Also, knowing that the killer is aware that you saw the whole thing, the fear of becoming the next victim would fuel your obsession to track down the killer.

Borrowing stylish and visual motifs from other directors, most notably Mario Bava, Argento creates a new type of Giallo. In a sense this film bridges the gap between the older, Italian thrillers and the slasher films that evolved through the 70s and 80s. There is a sense of terrorisation, mainly of two female characters, with bladed instruments that became a staple of the slasher, although claims of misogyny are a little wide of the mark in that Sam is equally terrorised. We’re also treated to some killer point of view shots that predate any slasher film. If ‘Black Christmas’ is a predecessor of ‘Halloween’ then ‘Bird’ must surely be an influence on Bob Clark’s classic…it even features a killer that terrorises our main character on the phone, remind you of anything?

Touching on those attacks with a knife and razor, the tension Argento builds is almost unbearable, particularly in the stalking of Sam’s girlfriend in her own home when she is trapped inside as the killer tries to force entry. We know she’s alone, we know that if the killer gets in that Giulia is dead but the scene is played out painfully slowly, torturing us as well as Giulia as her death seems almost inevitable. It reminds me of the scene in ‘Suspiria’ when the killer toys with the latch, playfully sliding the razor through the crack in the door and slowly tapping away at the latch. Argento constructs out a similar scene in ‘Deep Red’ where the killer attempts to gain entry to Marc Daly’s home…it’s an incredibly primal fear, turning a place of safety into a cage from which there is no escape other than the hope that someone will come along and save you.

Credit to Ennio Morricone for coming up with a beautiful score to go with the wonderful direction. To be able to call upon such a great composer for your debut feature is a testament to the high regard Argento must have encouraged. He’d already worked on the screenplay for Sergio Leone’s ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ and Morricone would go on to compose two more scores for his other two ‘Animal Trilogy’ movies, namely ‘Four Flies on Grey Velvet’ and ‘Cat O’ Nine Tails’.

But for me the best thing about this, retrospectively, is the formation of the themes and motifs that were being developed and would become central to his later masterpieces. We’d seen the black gloved, fedora wearing killer before but never in quite such psychosexual, fetishistic context that ushered in the new dawn of giallo as horror. There’s the baroque style of film-making, the building of tension through camera trickery and angled shots, tantalising glimpses of the black gloved killer, new ways of going over what had become tired ground combining styles for a fresh approach that seemed new and exciting. These motifs were to be honed and perfected the other two ‘Animal Trilogy’ films before it all came together for the simply outstanding ‘Profondo Rosso’ or ‘Deep Red’.

And what about the bad?

It’s no secret that Argento and lead actor Tony Musante (right) didn’t get along. As a scriptwriter Argento viewed actors as little more than mouthpieces for his dialogue and wasn’t prepared for a renowned method actor asking what his motivation was. It simply didn’t interest Argento who, as a visionary director, preferred his actors to just say the lines, seeing them as just another prop to fuel the visual narrative and keep the story moving. It was the camera, the lighting, the way a scene plays out that interested him and what he viewed as slightly diva behaviour perhaps tarnished his view of actors forever. It’s a shame because Musante is perfectly fine in the film but it was clear that Argento had no real flair in directing actors and that his talents lay in constructing a scene and shooting a set piece.

Any themes?

Other than what we’ve already touched on, building on the already existing tropes of the Giallo and making them his own, there is an early fascination for being trapped within a transparent barrier. Windows and mirrors became common themes within his work and we first see it when Sam witnesses the attempted murder whilst trapped between the two giant windows that make up the art gallery’s frontage (below). It’s classic Argento, trapped but in full view of what’s happening, completely helpless from intervening or from running away, forced to watch yet not able to participate. This is a trick he repeats in many of his features, culminating in ‘Opera’ where our heroine is forced to watch the brutal murders in a much less passive way, the only barrier being needles taped to her eyelids.

The feeling of being trapped is amplified in several other scenes. Giulia is trapped in her own home whilst the killer makes a bid for another murder. A second female victim is trapped during a similar scene, Sam has his passport confiscated so is stuck in Italy, he becomes pinned under a modern art sculpture as the killer is finally revealed and the titular bird, which turns out to be a major clue in the discovery of the killer’s identity, is caged in the zoo, its distinctive warble ‘captured’ on tape.

Release history

Cut and retitled for the US market

The BBFC really took exception to Argento during his early years! Ironically the early releases of this film were censored as a result of MPAA intervention as they removed around 9 seconds for the US cinema version, the same cut that Vampix released on VHS in 1983. Subsequent releases lost a total of around 40 seconds which included the trims to the elevator and bedroom attacks along with more substantial cuts of knickers being forcibly removed from a female victim with a knife. This fell under the compulsory ‘sexualised violence’ category of the BBFC’s guidelines.

This censored release continued in the UK, even intruding on the 2005 Platinum DVD release, although this was largely down to an error in their submission of a cut v

ersion. It was finally released uncut in the UK in 2011 by Arrow with a ‘15’ certificate and has been shown on the UK Horror channel in a widescreen Italian language print that was also uncut.

Cultural Impact

The painting that triggers the trauma

Massive in that it introduced the world to a talent that would flourish right up to the late 80s/early 90s giving us some of the most memorable films and scenes that the genre has to offer. It both reinvigorated and killed the giallo at the same time, bringing interest and excitement to the genre but no other Italian director seemed capable of pulling it off in the same way Argento did. Consequently, for every new Argento entry there would be ten sub-par entries that just couldn’t compete. That’s not to say that there were no good ones, Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava, Sergio Martino and Francesco Barilli in particular created some excellent gialli but they weren’t the international sensations that Argento’s proved to be.

The Gialli of the 60s and 70s were the precursors of the traditional slasher film and you can see how the Italian films set up the stalk and slash concept. ‘Bird’ came four years before Bob Clark’s ‘Black Christmas and eight years before ‘Halloween’ yet elements are there in both films, simplified and stripped down to the set piece drawn out across the film with the crime and sleuthing elements superfluous.

Hitchcock was a clear influence on Argento but this film, and others like it, in turn influenced Hitchcock and his contemporaries. ‘Frenzy’ takes elements of the giallo and, Brian De Palma in particular is heavily influenced by the work of Argento, particularly ‘Raising Cain and ‘Dressed to Kill’. Despite perhaps not sitting too comfortably within the horror genre as such, it is a landmark film due to its influence on the Italian giallo, its morphing into the slasher film and Argento’s increasing desire to explore the supernatural elements of the sub-genre.

Final Thoughts…

An outrageously assured debut, it is rightly regarded as a classic despite not quite hitting the heights of his 70s and 80s films. It created the blueprint that would lead to these classic films including the black gloved killer, distrust of police, outlandish characters, a protagonist working within the creative arts and the wonderfully constructed set piece. It sounds too obvious to say that it’s a good starting point for anyone new to Argento but in this case it’s completely true. Watching this after films like ‘Suspiria’, ‘Opera’ or ‘Phenomena’ may leave you a little cold but instead see it for what it is which is a beautifully shot, superbly plotted, clever little film from a director who would go a long, long way.

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Klute’, ‘Deep Red’, ‘Dressed to Kill’, ‘Amer’, ‘Hatchet for the Honeymoon’

Nightbreed (1990)

Tagline: ‘At last the night has a hero’

UK Running Time: 102 Minutes

Film Quality: 4/5

Gore Content: 3.5/5

Entertainment Value: 4.5/5

Originality: 4.5/5

Introduction

From the imagination of Clive Barker, the English author followed up his highly acclaimed ‘Hellraiser’ with a hugely ambitious adaptation of another of his shorter novels, ‘Cabal’. To say the film has a chequered history is a bit like saying Donald Trump is a bit of a character…its release was delayed, it was recut by studio Morgan Creek against Barker’s wishes, marketed as a slasher film despite its complex plot and ambiguous ‘monsters’ and was a highly expensive, almighty flop. More on its past later but, as cult films go, the history of this film is almost as colourful and interesting as the film itself.

In a nutshell

Boone (Craig Sheffer) has mental health problems and is convinced by his psychiatrist Decker (an incredibly creepy turn by the superb David Cronenberg) that he is in fact a deranged serial killer. They are both aware of Midian, a mythical place “where the monsters go”, and where The Breed reside, Boone seems destined to join them, Decker to destroy them. Therein starts a battle where the line between what is monstrous or evil and what is human or good becomes blurred.

What’s good about it?

Where to start! The sheer scope of Barker’s ambition is astounding. Anyone who has read any of his books will know that he has a startling imagination and it runs riot during a two hour monster-fest that features some of the most incredible looking creatures ever to appear on screen. All of the effects are analogue, all of the make-up is ‘real’ and the effects team do their utmost to bring as many of Barker’s nightmares to life as possible – Peloquin (left) in particular is a character who gave me nightmares way before I saw the film. For the most part they succeed tremendously and, though some of the effects have dated over the years, at the time it was groundbreaking stuff.

Staying with the production side of things, the score by Danny Elfman, who frequents some of the dark and magical worlds imagined by Tim Burton, is right up there with his best work and lends the film the kind of epic feel that Barker was clearly aiming for. The very first thing you see, following the Morgan Creek logo, is some of the incredible monsters, glimpsed through the giant, sweeping lettering of ‘Nightbreed’ accompanied by a grandiose orchestral, choral piece from Elfman suggesting the promise of some kind of Grand Guignol epic. It then tones down to softer, magical, ambient tones against the backdrop of a prophetic tapestry hinting at the dream-like mythology to come.

And what a great mythology it is. Barker has always been fascinated not just by what lies within but what lies just outside. In ‘Hellraiser’ the Cenobites are just the solving a puzzle away, in ‘Candyman’ our antihero can be with us with the gentle utterance of just five words, here they’re literally on the map, on our doorstep. The idea that monsters live amongst us isn’t new but Barker is more interested in giving the monsters a history, personality and motive, a desire to be left alone which manifests itself as a shared goal that lies beyond the torment of mankind which is what separates this from his previous cinematic outings.

What about the bad?

Paradoxically, given my praise of Barker’s imagination and vision, some aspects of his direction lets the film down. It is a bit of a mess of a film that works despite itself. There’s almost a ‘let’s throw enough sugar in the mix and it’ll turn out sweet’ approach to the film that it can come across as overwhelming. It has the feel of a project that ran away from him a bit, although it has to be said that he did a terrific job of making it as entertaining as it is, you sometimes just wish he could have reigned himself in a bit.

Also, there are perhaps TOO many monsters. I wanted to know more about some of them…Lylesberg, Baphomet, the Berserkers get too little screen time and it would have been great to have fleshed them out a little bit. The same goes for some of the human characters who too often come across as stereotypes, the only reason for them being there in the first place to give The Breed a purpose to act the way they do. Eigerman the militant police chief, the insane priest Ashberry – they deliver some good lines but character-wise they’re not very interesting, one dimensional and the colourful Breed don’t need dull characters to make them look interesting!

Any themes?

A couple of very common Barker themes come through loud and clear. The humans are frequently more monstrous than the monsters, murdering, burning villages to the ground, plotting, double-crossing. Also, it is the monstrous actions of the humans that cause The Breed to fulfil their role as monsters and destroy the human characters. Our sympathies lie with The Breed, no doubt about that, and it’s a theme that runs throughout Barker’s work, none more so than in ‘Nightbreed’.

One of The Breed puts it perfectly when she says we envy them…when we dream we can fly, we can breathe underwater, do fantastical things and the Breed are able to do all of that. We can’t understand why they can do that and we fear what we can’t understand…what we fear we destroy.

Release History

This is where it gets REALLY interesting! Few films have as complicated a release as ‘Nightbreed’. Barker’s original cut was more than 150 minutes but Fox asked for close to an hour to be removed. It was eventually cut to 120 minutes (this version was released on VHS in some territories), and then cut further to 102 minutes, the version released in the UK.

This version bore little resemblance to Barker’s original version and was marketed in trailers as a slasher film despite being the antithesis of the sub-genre. The excised footage was considered lost, Barker gave the film up as a bad experience and that was that…we were left with a highly entertaining glimpse of what could have been.

Fast forward more than 20 years and the ‘lost’ footage was found. This footage was edited together with the theatrical cut and various VHS versions to produce what became known as ‘The Cabal Cut’…close to three hours in length it was a mess, due to reshoots some characters died twice, it was an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ edit for the purpose of finding out which elements could be saved and which would remain as deleted scenes. Barker was then able to supervise a ‘Final Cut’ (in the truest sense of the word in this case) which ran for 122 minutes and contained around 40 minutes of new and alternate scenes. The result is a film that makes more sense and gives a lot more depth to the relationship between Boone and his love, Lori, but, bizarrely, doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a hugely entertaining mess…just a mess that more closely represents Barker’s original vision.

The Final Cut still doesn’t have a UK release.

Cultural Impact

The film would certainly be much more marketable now…the theme of monsters as the good guys has really taken off in big budget movies such as the ‘X-Men’ series, Guillermo del Toro’s films and kids films such as the Dragons movies.

There were a fair few movie tie ins including a video game, a book showcasing the outstanding special effects called ‘The Nightbreed Chronicles’, the theatrical script was released as part of a ‘making of’ book and Danny Elfman’s soundtrack was recently re-released as a limited edition vinyl. There are also at least two highly successful comic book adaptations in the 90s and more recently in 2015. 

The mythology of Midian has taken on a life of its own in a similar was to Lovecracft’s Cthulhu mythos with a few spin off books and a fan-scribed collection of short stories called ‘Midian Unmade’. The Cabal Cut came about as a result of a massive petition signed by thousands that became known as ‘Occupy Midian’. Of serious interest if it comes to fruition was talk of a TV series in 2014. This hasn’t come to pass yet but Morgan Creek recently sold the rights to most its back catalogue but, intriguingly kept the rights to the ‘Nightbreed’ TV series…watch this space!

Final Thoughts

‘Nightbreed’ is a film that demands to be seen. It’s a flawed masterpiece that is a fine attempt at making an epic horror movie but isn’t really as complex as it appears during viewing. That is probably why it was an almighty flop at the time, there was no demand for this type of film in the late 80s, horror films were on the slide so it’s no surprise it has achieved cult status with its release history and tales of lost footage just adding to that. If you don’t like horror films then this film won’t convert you but if you do and you haven’t seen ‘Nightbreed’ then you really might get a kick out of it.

Memorable Quotes

Decker: “Everyone has a secret face”

Peloquin: “It’s all true…God’s an astronaut, Oz is over the rainbow…and Midian is where the monsters live.”

Decker: “Are you saying he’s dead?”

Eigerman: “Not lying down dead my friend, walking around in my fucking cell dead…”

Peloquin: “He’s natural and that means he’s meat…meat for the beast.”

Leroy: “There goes the neighbourhood…..”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Hellboy 2: The Golden Army’, ‘Hellraiser’, ‘Lord of Illusions’, ‘Dust Devil’

Braindead (1992)

Tagline: “There’s something nasty in Lionel’s cellar…his family!”
UK Running Time: 104 minutes

Film Quality: 4.5/5
Gore Content: 5/5
Entertainment Value: 4.5/5
Originality: 3/5

Introduction

Up and coming horror director Peter Jackson raised the bar when it came to splatter comedies with his debut feature ‘Bad Taste’. Following it up with a sex comedy involving giant muppets he returned to the splatter genre with the sole intention of outdoing himself, suffice to say he succeeded. What he created was a gross out gore comedy that is by far and away the bloodiest film ever committed to celluloid which amplifies every single visual gag from his first film and turns the on screen offal all the way up to eleven!

In a nutshell

When Lionel’s overbearing mother is bitten by a Sumatran Rat Monkey she quickly turns into a flesh eating zombie, infecting anyone else she attacks. Enlisting the help of his star crossed lover they must battle the undead, unhelpful family members and, somehow, protect his mother to try and keep all of this a secret and prevent a mass zombie epidemic.

So what’s good about it?

The only place you can start with this is the gore…it is SO over the top that at times you can’t quite believe what you’re seeing. It’s impossible to list all of the moments in Jackson’s gore epic but it can be summed up by one scene, the infamous lawnmower massacre (left). What was Peter Jackson thinking!!!??? The best part of five minutes solid, filled purely with zombies being pureed by an upturned lawnmower, intercut with a scene in another room where two women shove still twitching body parts (including half a head) into a blender. Blood and guts literally fly everywhere…I genuinely don’t think I’ve witnessed, before or since, such a sustained onslaught of extreme splatter. It’s audacious enough in its conception, let alone filmed with such relish…simply unbelievable!

Whilst Jackson really went for it in the gore stakes, he also piles on the laughs. There are clear efforts to top ‘Bad Taste’, for example Derek’s attempts to keep his brains in his head draw parallels with the nurse who can’t keep her head the right way up, the lawnmower massacre references the chainsaw skirmish, the dinner scene with the custard tries to out-gross the bowl of chuck and he repeats his ‘born again’ trick. But there are some great lines as well including Lionel’s reaction to Paquita’s horror that his mother has eaten her dog (“not all of it!”) or the kung-fu reverend (“I kick arse for the Lord”). Some very good visual gags as well including the zombie with a gnome where his severed head should be and some intestines preening itself in the mirror.

Visual nod to 'The Thing' anyone?

Jackson gets in some nerdy movie nods as well, mostly in the direction of Monty Python. The reverend is right out of a Python sketch, there is a direct reference to the black knight scene and more than enough slapstick humour and surreal visuals to have made the Pythons proud. There is a very clear reference to ‘The Thing’ with Uncle Les’ zombie, his head and spinal cord sitting atop of the rest of his body. There’s a ribcage removal that brings ‘Dawn of the Dead’ to mind, in fact much of the flesh eating must be a nod to Romero’s cult flick in the sense that it’s all done with a comic book sensibility.

What surprised me most is that there is a genuine attempt to bring some character, emotion and mythology into the film with the subplot involving Lionel’s mother’s deep and dark secret and Lionel’s implied childhood trauma. The characterisation involving Lionel and Paquita (left) as destiny is a little clichéd but works surprisingly well thanks to our sympathy for Lionel and the way Timothy Balme plays the character as an awkward outcast. In amongst all of the gore, ears in custard and zombie sex, there’s something quite sweet in the central love story that just gives the film a little bit of heart. I’m not normally one for unnecessary romances in horror films but it does lift this film above your average splatter film, underpinning the mayhem with a bit of humanity.

Finally we have Jackson’s direction. Watching it back you can see some of the shots that ended up in the Rings trilogy, the quick and twisty zooms, the maniacal close ups and the odd sweeping pan. It was obvious to anyone who saw this and ‘Bad Taste’ (perhaps not so much ‘Meet the Feebles’) that Jackson was going places. This film cost just $3million and, though the gore effects have dated a little and you can see some of the cracks, all of the effects are practical. The vision and inventiveness is all there on the screen. More grandiose things were to follow with a shot at a more serious film, ‘Heavenly Creatures’, before the bigger budgets and a return to the horror-comedy genre with ‘The Frighteners’ in 1996.

And what about the bad?

Despite its wild visuals, insane levels of gore, high entertainment value and belly laughs, somehow it doesn’t satisfy in the same way that ‘Bad Taste’ did. I can’t quite put my finger on why, perhaps ‘Bad Taste’ was such a labour of love that Jackson’s personality came through just that little bit more than it does in ‘Braindead’.

On the genuinely bad side, the low budget does show at times, especially during a couple of truly cringe worthy shots of trams that make Brio sets look convincing and the cotton wool hanging in the sky during the opening plane scene. Some of the acting is decidedly suspect, particularly when involving accents, but you can get away with that to a certain extent thanks to the campy nature of the film and its comedic tendencies.

Any themes?

There’s a hell of a lot of disturbing subtext involving motherhood. Lionel’s mother can’t let go of her son, in a quite literal sense at the end where she says “Nobody will ever love you like your mother” before forcing him back inside her gaping insides before he’s ‘born again’. She spends the entire film trying to stop him from leaving her, from sabotaging his blossoming relationship with Paquita to wheezing out “Don’t let them take me away” shortly before succumbing to the bite. He’s spent a lifetime under the thumb and she just can’t let him go.

The film owes a lot to the old tradition of Grand Guignol theatre which frequently featured graphic and violent images from the early 20th century through to the 60s. So graphic and realistic were the effects on occasion that audience members would be physically sick or become unnerved that some of the atrocities taking place on stage were actually real. Horror was the most popular form of Grand Guignol and considered extremely violent for the time but were followed by comedies to counter the effects of the horror. It’s not such a leap of logic that today’s ultra-gory horror comedies sprang from the same philosophy, up the gore and up the laughs to be able to stomach the content.

Release history

I still find it incredible that this film has never suffered any censorship problems in the UK and has only ever been available in uncut form, even when shown on TV several times. In fact, in recently released notes from the BBFC, it appears that they gave serious consideration to a ‘15’ rating because it’s so over the top that it simply can’t be taken seriously in terms of causing harm to the viewer. The only reason they didn’t was that it might set a dangerous precedent for classifying gory films for younger viewers.

It didn’t fare so well in other countries, versions of the film are still banned in Germany and Finland and heavily cut in a number of other countries including the US unrated version and Swedish release. There has yet to be a decent DVD or blu-ray release and is only available as an anamorphic release in the German ‘Peter Jackson Collection’. Jackson has stated that it his intention to remaster the films himself so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Cultural Impact

This gorefest gave Peter Jackson a springboard towards bigger budget films and was the last in what you might call his splatter period. It showed that he had the talent to work with a slightly bigger budget and that increased further with his first ‘serious’ picture, ‘Heavenly Creatures’ which followed in 1994.

I would dearly love to see the reaction of those who first discovered Peter Jackson through his, admittedly quite brilliant, ‘Lord of the Rings’ film. The thought of them hunting out his previous films and pressing play on this only to be confronted by one of the most demented splatterfests ever to grace a video player!

‘Braindead’ has been cited by Simon Pegg as a major inspiration for his own cult comedy ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and is referenced in the scene where Shaun removes the bandage on his mother’s arm.

Final Thoughts…

It may be a little comedic for some gorehounds’ tastes but you can’t deny the extreme nature of the content and the almost unparalleled levels of bloodshed on display. I don’t think he would have got away with half of the stuff that is thrown at the screen had it not been done with tongue firmly planted in cheek and it is a fairly unique brand of humour on display. You can see some of the shots and directorial flourishes from this film appear again in his later, bigger budget movies and it’s obviously a personal film…but hurry up and give us a decent release, please!

Memorable Quote

Paquita: “Your mother ate my dog.”
Lionel (holding up the tail): “Not all of it…”

Priest: “Step aside boy, this calls for some divine intervention…I kick arse for the Lord.”

Uncle Les: “I understand Lionel…some things a fella prefers to do alone.”

Lionel: “That’s my mother you’re pissing on.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Bad Taste’, ‘Re-Animator’. ‘Evil Dead 2’, ‘Return of the Living Dead’

The Fog (1980)

Tagline: “Bolt your doors, lock your windows, there’s something in The Fog!”
UK Running Time: 89 minutes

Film Quality: 4/5
Gore Content: 2/5
Entertainment Value: 4.5/5
Originality: 4/5

Introduction

After absolutely smashing it with ‘Halloween’, Carpenter was fast gaining a reputation for doing great things with low budgets. It was two years before another film bearing his name was released to the cinema and he was given more than triple the budget for another independent movie, ‘The Fog’. Still incredibly economic at just $1million (‘The Shining’ was released in the same year on a budget of $19million) he managed to turn out yet another little gem of a film that, despite being a uniquely Carpenter film, managed to convey his ability to try new things.

In a nutshell

A hundred years ago a clipper ship crashed into rocks just off Antonio Bay and the gold salvaged from the stricken vessel was used to found the small township that thrives ‘today’. All of the seamen, carrying riches to set up a leper colony, perished but it soon becomes apparent that the wreck was orchestrated and that a 100 year old curse was about to be cashed in as the menacing mariners lurking behind a mysterious fog enact their ghostly revenge.

So what’s good about it?

What worked so well in ‘Halloween’ was the simple plot, reliance on atmosphere and mood over gore and action and, for the most part Carpenter stays true to those principals. The opening five minutes is brilliantly atmospheric with a beautifully narrated ghost story courtesy of “America’s favourite old fart” John Houseman (great quote from Bill Murray!!!) which serves a dual purpose. Not only does it set the scene for the film by filling us in with the back story but it also tells us precisely what type of film we’re about to see. This is a ghost story, pure and simple and as such sets itself up as a departure from his earlier box office smash and changes our expectations.

The way Carpenter draws us into his world is masterful. We hear the church bells chime midnight, at which point a number of ghostly goings on such as lights switching on and off, car horns blaring out (I could have done without the chair moving on its own though!) and then moves the plot further by introducing us to the drunk Father Malone and the role the church played in the tragedy that befell the Elizabeth Dane all those years ago. Watch out for a cameo by Carpenter himself as the church janitor and a fantastic turn by movie stalwart Hal Holbrook, nailing his role as the troubled church leader who bears the guilt of his forefathers.

That brings us on to one of the little surprises which is the casting of Jamie Leigh Curtis once again. She played the part of the dowdy, whiter than white final girl Laurie Strode to perfection yet within about ten minutes of hitchhiking with Tom Atkins’ Nick she’s flogging her artwork in a post-coital conversation! Again, the early expectation that she will be another typical final girl is turned on its head and once again Curtis is sensational as the confident Elizabeth. Yet is the star turn of Adrienne Barbeau (pictured) as the sassy, sexy, silk-voiced jazz radio DJ Stevie Wayne who steals the show. She is magnificent, strong and independent in her role as a radio DJ and completely believable as a single mother desperately trying to rescue the town from her vantage point at the top of the lighthouse from where she can see the fog, desperately trying to direct the townsfolk to safety.

This brings us along very nicely to the tension which Carpenter brings to the boil very nicely. There are several standout scenes but for me it’s the attack on Stevie Wayne’s son, Andy, which is edited to perfection. Barbeau’s on air pleas for help, Andy trapped behind his locked bedroom door as the ghosts attack and Nick’s ‘will he or won’t he get there in time?’ attempts to save him are complemented by Carpenter’s rhythmic, pulsating, perfectly timed electronic score that captures the vibe of the film in musical form, for me his best score and even better than the iconic ‘Halloween’. It displays Carpenter’s blistering ability to build a scene up to crescendo through editing, direction of his actors and music, something he constructed to devastating effect with a bigger budget in ‘The Thing’.

The ghosts originally took more of a back seat in Carpenter’s first cut, much to his own dissatisfaction. Upon viewing his first cut of the movie he was so unimpressed with his own creation that he recut and reshot around a third of the film including most of the violence that we see on screen, particularly the deaths of the three fishermen on the Sea Grass. Despite this there is still nothing particularly graphic and Carpenter continues to play off the fact that much is hidden within the fog. There are a lot of very squishy sound effects and we do see a few, brief, very green looking close ups of the ghosts faces (let’s not forget that they’re supposed to have been under water for 100 years and suffered from Leprosy so they were never going to be pretty!). I’m not sure this really works too well, other than a lovely shot of an arm covered in seaweed in the aforementioned escape from Andy’s house but it does give us a glimpse of what we’re dealing with.

What Carpenter ultimately serves up is a fantastic, very taut little ghost story that was born out of an urban legend that could have originated from any sleep little fishing village. Apparently he and his, then girlfriend, co-scriptwriter and long term collaborator Debra Hill got the idea at Stonehenge when they saw a very strange glowing fog and the idea that monsters could be harboured within. This idea was taken further in a more literal fashion in the entirely unconnected but equally effective ‘The Mist’ by Frank Darabont.

What about the bad?

It’s highly entertaining and has become a cult favourite, well-loved within Carpenter’s impressive canon of work, but it’s far from perfect. The violent deaths, though far from graphic, do seem a little out of place within the chilling ghost story setting and more in keeping with his previous dabble in horror. Of course we weren’t privy to Carpenter’s first cut and his description of an anaemic horror devoid of scares and threat doesn’t sound enticing. That the film still works despite this jarring of genre styles is more down to the tension created by Carpenter’s direction and score than the reshoots.

There are a few plot elements that I don’t think work too well. Why do the ghosts not just attack the procession (which seems to fizzle out all too quickly), they’d have had no trouble finding six victims there, why the relentless pursuit, Michael Myers style, of Nick, Elizabeth and Stevie? I understand that the final payoff had to be Father Malone as the direct ancestor of one of the original conspirators but it took a huge leap of faith, if you’ll pardon the expression.

Any themes?

Carpenter has made a film about paying the consequences of former wrongs, perhaps an attack on some of the wrongs committed by some of America’s forefathers? Here we have a township, Antonio Bay, created as a consequence of a massive wrong, the effective murder of a leper colony who wanted to live alongside them. To compound that, they then took their gold and used that wealth to create and enhance their own settlement. Is this an attack on some of the wrongs in America’s past? The actions of some of the early European explorers who persecuted and committed genocide of the native Americans to pave the way for the America we know today.

It’s also about the ancestors of those who committed the atrocity being forced to confront their own guilt, the outlet for that being Father Malone and his own personal cross to bear…so to speak. It also shows how monuments are created to overshadow and airbrush such moments in history. Here the procession and celebration of the birth of their town is something to be celebrated and their founders considered great men. But as Father Malone says “This celebration is a travesty…we’re honouring murderers”.

Many ghost stories, particularly those we have seen over recent years that come from the Far East, feature vengeful ghosts who return via a recognisable yet mysterious means, be it a cursed tape, electrical pulses or, in Carpenter’s film, a mysterious and unearthly fog which, as we know from the diary that Father Malone discovers, aided the forefathers in their treacherous plan. By tapping into that fear of the unknown, in this case what could be in the fog, guilt of a wrong left unresolved and not dealing with those consequences, Carpenter creates a ghost story that we can all relate to.

Release history

There have never been any censorship issues with this film with little to know blood or gore, no hint of a director’s cut and a multitude of VHS and DVD releases, including a fine 2 disc release with a wealth of bonus material. It is crying out for a decent blu-ray release in the UK, something akin to Scream Factory’s release so come on Arrow…see if you can thrash out a deal!!! I’d love to see the murky depths of The Fog in all of its atmospheric glory!

Cultural Impact

It’s a shame that it’s rarely regarded as prominent on Carpenter’s CV despite sitting very nicely within his golden period. Perhaps that’s the problem…we all like a good burger but when it’s a choice between that and a nice juicy steak there’s a preference for the latter. In most other directors’ body if work it would be a standout.

It is notable for being the only film starring scream queens Jamie Leigh Curtis and her mother Janet Leigh together (yes, they are both in ‘Halloween H2O’ but for Janet it was very much a cameo) and you have to give Carpenter and the distributers a great deal of credit for not making that a focal point of the film.

One disappointing legacy is the 2005 remake. It’s reasonably well know that ‘The Fog’, for all its good points, is not one of Carpenter’s personal favourites. In fact it was his frustration that he could have done better which led to him agreeing to allow the remake in the first place, that with the level of technical achievement possible, a better job could be done. How wrong he was and the remake just goes to highlight what a great job Carpenter did. With the possible exception of ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ it has to go down as the most anaemic and fright-free entry to the glut of remakes that have poisoned the silver screen lately. If you take only one thig from this blog then please, let it be that you will never go near the remake!

Final thoughts

Carpenter once again showed himself to be a master of carving out unbearable tension and atmospherics on a low budget, this time within a ghost story setting rather than a slasher, sci-fi or siege movie. It’s a point for fans to argue over precisely where this film stands in his body of work, many considering it a secondary masterpiece that sits alongside ‘Escape From New York’, ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ and ‘Prince of Darkness’, slightly below his classic features ‘Halloween’, ‘They Live’ and ‘The Thing’. It shows just what a great director Carpenter was, and probably still could be, that you can talk about so many great films there in one sentence and still miss out some genuine fan favourites. ‘The Fog’ may not be his best film but if you were channel hopping and you came across a late night screening, well, you’d watch it to the end wouldn’t you!

Memorable Quotes

Father Malone: “The celebration tonight is a travesty, we’re honouring murderers.”

Stevie Wayne: “I don’t know what happened to Antonio Bay tonight, something came out of the fog and tried to destroy us. In one moment it vanished. But if this has been anything but a nightmare, and if we don’t wake up safe inn our beds, it could come again.”

Father Malone (reading from the diary): “We were aided by an unearthly fog that rolled in, as if heaven sent, although God had no part in our actions tonight.”

Mr Machen: “When the fog returns to Antonio Bay, the men at the bottom of the sea, out in the water by Spivey Point, will rise up and search for the campfire that led them to their dark, icy death.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘The Mist’, ‘Awakenings’, ‘The Others’, ‘The Thing’

Suspiria (1977)

Tagline: “The only thing more terrifying than the last 12 minutes of this film are the first 92”
UK Running Time: 95 minutes

Film Quality: 5/5
Gore Content: 3.5/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
Originality: 4.5/5

Introduction

Italian director Dario Argento had already cemented a reputation for audacious and flamboyant set pieces, dubbed ‘The Italian hitchcock’ in many quarters. Up until 1977 his output had mainly been in the ‘Giallo’ sub-genre, a form of whodunit thriller renowned for their black gloved killers, violent murders and femme fatales. Having perfected the art with the masterful ‘Deep Red’ he was on the lookout for something different and entered into a relationship with his ‘Deep Red’ star Daria Nicolodi. She imparted a tale that her grandmother used to tell about an art school where the teachers dabbled in black magic, this formed the backbone of his next feature, his first full on horror film and arguably one of the greatest, most artistically beautiful horror films of all time.

In a nutshell

An American student, Suzy Bannion, arrives at a prestigious dance academy in Germany at a time when one of the students is murdered. Strange things begin to happen to Suzy and she starts to suspect that the teachers, particularly the mysterious director, may not be what they seem and that a coven of witches are behind the strange goings on.

So what’s good about it?

Despite his films’ reputation for lacking any kind of narrative structure his films up to this point had been relatively well constructed and densely scripted. ‘Suspiria’ goes completely the other way with a tadpole of a plot and an almost complete abandon of logic that creates a dream like atmosphere and a world where cause and effect go out of the window. The nightmarish scene where one of the girls, Sarah, is pursued by an unseen assailant and jumps, despite looking first, into a room filled only with coiled wire is a perfect example of this. What is the room for? How did she get there? What has happened to the geography of the building? The scene is there purely to construct that most nightmarish of concepts of being chased but not being able to get away.

He’d already given us some fine gore set pieces in ‘Deep Red’ but this freeform structure allowed his imagination to run wild and he doesn’t disappoint. The opening ten minutes is as close to perfection as a horror film has got as Suzy is plunged into a foreign land, segueing almost seamlessly into a chase scene involving another girl and what, in retrospect, must have been a witch (watch out for the shadow cast on a tree trunk as lightning strikes). What follows as the girl’s head is forced through a broken window, stabbed multiple times, wrapped up in wire cord, pushed through a glass ceiling and hung from the neck defies all logic but is devilishly frightening. Those otherworldly eyes that stare at her through the darkness on the other side of the window, her look of abject terror, that terrifying Goblin score combines to incredible effect and sets the tone for the rest of the film.

That Goblin score is legendary, even in horror folklore, and any remake will struggle to live up to the original, partly because of this highly uusual music. Goblin had already scored Argento’s ‘Deep Red’ but the band, under the supervision of Argento who insisted on the soundtrack being recorded before the film was made, went far more experimental with ‘Suspiria’. The opening theme ‘Suspiria’ is a magical, fairy tale style piece that wouldn’t be out of place in a Harry Potter film whereas the crashing sounds and sudden, piercing shrills of ‘Sighs’ sounds terrifying on its own but, when paired with the visuals including a maniacal witch repeatedly stabbing a defenceless girl is utterly shattering. Argento would play the music loudly whilst filming key scenes (he always overdubbed the films afterwards) to ensure the mood of the film was captured by the score.

The use of colour is very bold, Argento sought out IB stock that was considered outmoded and used different filters to create different colourful effects. Just note the incredible red tone that he bathes Suzy in as the airport doors open, a very unnatural colour and a palette that remains that way for the world she has just entered…her journey to the academy sees the rain change colour several times! Also, the scene in the dance academy when they are forced to sleep in the hall, the lights are turned off and beyond the curtains there is a deep red glow where the witches reside. It’s always the dark, indoor scenes that are bathed in red, outside, including the supernatural attack by what may or may not be a statue that has come to life, appear more naturalistic. In a sense the red represents the presence of the witches, danger, violence and the supernatural in an enclosed space from which there is no escape. It’s an incredible look, the appearance of which resonates with how you might imagine a dark fairytale (just watch ‘A Company of Wolves’ for a perfect example) to look.

It’s a cliché but the entire film is one great work of art. You can forgive the completely incoherent plot, with so much emphasis on perfecting the visual aspect of the film, any focus on plot would be a distraction and you wouldn’t necessarily have the power that the film possesses. Argento is known for his dislike, or perhaps disregard of actors, seeing them as just another prop that he can use to create his vision and far more care has been used in lighting the characters, positioning them in just the right place and violently murdering them than in the words they are given to recite. It takes a truly visionary filmmaker to pull that off to the extent that he managed with ‘Suspiria’, a feat he would continue throughout the 80s.

And what about the bad?

Modern audiences may struggle with some of the terrible acting and dialogue. Some of it was almost intentional. Argento’s original script was for the school to be for children but he was advised to up the age of the characters, such violent images involving children would not go down well with audiences. He reconsidered this but kept much of the dialogue the same. As a consequence many of the exchanges (stuck out tongues, fighting over ballet shoes, etc…) come across as childish. I’ve already said that it was tradition in Italy to film without sound and overdubbing the dialogue later. This gives the effect of lips flapping about like a rubber ring in rapids whilst the English language dub is read, monotone, by another actor or actress. Most of the actors used their native tongues so there was a variety of different languages played out during each scene, the players simply reciting the lines they were given. You’re never going to get Oscar winning performances that way!

I like the surreal nature of the film, I love that cause and effect doesn’t necessarily apply and I don’t care that it’s highly unlikely that a faithful guide dog would rip out his master’s throat and start to eat his tonsils. But then the film is aimed at me! This approach isn’t likely to please fans of the latest ‘Friday the 13th’ remake which is why the idea of a ‘Suspiria’ remake concerns me. The sole aim of a remake is to make money out of the name or notoriety of its origin, if the aim was to improve it then they’d remake ‘Ghoulies’. I’ve got nothing against remakes per se but if it’s aimed at the lowest common denominator who then want to see the original then they’ll be sorely disappointed. I would hate for this masterpiece of surreal cinema to be diluted by a tame and lacklustre remake…only time will tell.

Any themes?

Considering Argento has often been accused of misogyny this is a film full of very strong women and very weak or impaired men. All of the women are in positions of power whilst the men are subservient to say the least. The most prominent male character in terms of stature is blind so literally can’t see what’s in front of his very eyes (that the place is run by a coven of witches) whilst Pavlo is a lumbering, simple mute who doesn’t speak the language so is freely insulted by everyone around him without any clue.

As with many Argento films, mirrors, windows and glass play a big part in proceedings. Our first encounter with the supernatural is when Pat sees the glowing eyes through the window before being thrust through it. She then falls through a glass ceiling, impaling her flatmate with a large piece of falling glass. Udo Kier’s character has a stunning conversation with Suzy as the camera zooms slowly in on them…just as you think Argento’s camera is going for the extreme close up it goes between them, instead focusing on their reflection in the large window on the background as the conversation about witches in folklore plays out. ‘Bad luck is not caused by broken mirrors, but broken minds’ he says via that reflection.

As mentioned before there are very strong allusions to fairy tales. The central premise is based on a tale that Daria Nicolodi’s (who has an uncredited cameo as one of the ladies in the airport) Grandmother used to tell her, a bedtime story to chill the heart! There is a ‘once upon a time’ style opening narration (the original Italian soundtrack features Argento himself as the narrator!) to set the scene and let’s be honest…witches play a big part in many fairy tales, although they’re perhaps not so graphically gory! Suzy is drugged, how about a nod to ‘Sleeping Beauty’ there, she is the third of three girls to be terrorised but survives by the hair on her chinny chin chin and there’s the theme running through it of grown up authority figures out to cause harm to the youngsters. The Brothers’ Grimm would have been proud!

Release history

‘Suspiria’ got a bit of a raw deal in its early years from the BBFC, categorised as a ’Stage 3 Video Nasty’ which meant that it was liable to seized and destroyed. Its sequel ‘Inferno’ was a stage 2 nasty with ‘Tenebrae’ put on the DPP list outright!

The BBFC demanding 15 seconds of cuts to the violent death of the blind man and a brief 2 second cut to the scene involving Sara and the coiled wire. When Thorn EMI brought out an uncut version on VHS in 1982 they withdrew it themselves, presumably worried about the violent nature of the film in the video nasties panic. They resubmitted it and the inevitable cuts were forced upon them, it lost a total of 1m13s with much of the opening murder removed, including the infamous stab to the heart and pretty much the entirety of the blind man losing his throat.

Entertainment in Video restored some of those cuts in 1990 but was still missing a good 34 seconds, again it was those same two scenes which caused the BBFC problems but it finally got a certified uncut release in 1998 (missing a few seconds from the opening scene, possibly due to print damage) when Nouveaux brought it out.

Anchor Bay then released a special edition two disc DVD, we’re just waiting for someone to bring out the truly mind-blowing remastered blu ray version that it badly deserves.

Cultural Impact

‘Suspiria’ is generally regarded as a masterpiece of horror cinema and no discerning gorehound should be without it. It appears in many critics’ top ten lists and influenced, and continues to influence many horror films in terms of its colour palette and outlandish style. That it continues to wow audiences 40 years on is astonishing for what is essentially an arthouse oddity but, despite the BBFC’s best efforts to treat it as a piece of trash cinema (honestly…why didn’t they just draw a moustache on the Mona Lisa whilst they were at it!) it receives high critical acclaim and continues to be reappraised.

Argento followed it up with the second of his Three Mothers trilogy, the equally surreal ‘Inferno’ which retains the nightmarish, fairy tale quality of ‘Suspiria’ but suffers slightly from some jarring geographical shifts, and carried on an incredible run of films with ‘Phenomena’, ‘Tenebrae’, ‘Opera’ and the good half of ‘Two Evil Eyes’ (sorry Mr Romero but you weren’t really trying there were you) to fully deserve his moniker of ‘The Master of Horror’. That ‘Suspiria’ was his first attempt at all out horror, yes there were elements of the supernatural in ‘Deep Red’ but it is essentially a giallo thriller, makes it all the more impressive.

Final Thoughts…

I can’t think of a more beautiful piece of horror cinema, and there have been many good ones. There is colour and style oozing out of every frame which, combined with a unique score and some of Argento’s most ferociously powerful and frightening images adds up to an unforgettable experience. It’s long been a desire of mine to see it on the big screen and perhaps, with the big budget Hollywood remake coming, it may get a limited release to provide that opportunity because it must be an extraordinary assault on the senses. Until then I’ll have to appreciate it for what it is, a majestic piece of cinema that is a testament to Argento’s ability to innovate and astound.

Memorable Quote

Dr Mandel: “Bad luck isn’t brought by broken mirrors, but by broken minds.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Inferno’, ‘A Company of Wolves’, ‘Amer’, ‘Autopsy (2008)