Poltergeist (1982)

Tagline: “They’re here!”
UK Running Time: 114 minutes

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

Introduction

Written and produced by Steven Spielberg, he handed directorial reigns over to Tobe ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Hooper for what was envisaged as a supernatural horror film for teenagers. What emerged was a tremendously entertaining fright flick and one of the greatest debates about ownership of a movie in film history, one that Hooper never really recovered from. Released a week after ‘E.T.’ it can almost be seen as a companion piece to Spielberg’s classic, the flip side of the same coin.

In a nutshell

The Freelings are experiencing strange goings on in their idyllic suburban home but things take a dark turn when their daughter disappears during a storm, apparently to another dimension. Can they discover what has happened to their daughter and get her back before the dark forces that have taken her grow too strong?

So what’s good about it?

Setting the story in a cheery, modern suburb within a good, stable family home provides the film with an unusual grounding in the genre. This is no creaky abandoned house, there are no dark secrets within the family and no murderous past to haunt the local schoolkids. This is an everyman family who happen to find themselves the centre of unusual supernatural occurrences. Spielberg has historically chosen broken families as the centre of his movies so it’s an unusual quirk that for his only straight up horror movie he chooses a solid, virtuous family to terrorise and break apart.

The acting is excellent, particularly Craig T. Nelson as the initially sceptical Dad who is forced to confront his own doubts about the supernatural to get his daughter back. Jobeth Williams as well is wonderful in her role as the protective mother who is willing to try anything to get her daughter back whilst doing her best to protect her other two children, the underused Dominique Dunne (who was tragically murdered by her boyfriend just months after the film was released) and the adorably innocent Oliver Robbins as Robbie who is as intrigued by the whole thing as he is frightened. But it’s the wonderfully named Zelda Rubinstein who steals the show as Tangina (left) with some brilliant dialogued, wittily delivered in a highly theatrical style that surely pokes fun at the over the top, stylised nature of many medium’s actions.

The effects are suitably fantastic and, at times, nightmarish. The ghost that we see coming down the stairs midway through the film (right) is beautifully rendered and shows that not all ghosts can evoke feelings of dread but can also take your breath away with wonder. Compare that with the gory scene where one of the parapsychologists rips off his own face and you see the, at times, conflicting elements of the film that surely came about as the result of the supposed on-set confusion which I’ll deal with later. It also has some utterly nightmarish concepts, not least the clown doll.

We all remember a toy that used to scare us at night…mine was a money box shaped like a crow and I distinctly remember calling my Dad in the middle of the night once and asking him to move it out of sight. It’s moments like that that make this film a relatable to most of us, an aspect missing from other horror films and it’s peppered throughout the film. Whether it’s the overwhelming urge to protect your kids, the fear of thunderstorms, projecting our fears onto inanimate objects (in this case an old tree) or that nightmarish reverse zoom as Diane tries to run down a corridor without seeming to get anywhere, it’s all relatable.

But for me this works as a terrific ‘my first horror movie’ without selling itself as a spoof, comedy, parody or completely without frightful thrills. There’s enough tension and scares for the adults without overdoing it for the kids and, though it’s certainly not for younger kids, I remember seeing it as a 12 year old and loving the thrill of experiencing some non-threatening scares without feeling like I was watching a children’s film. As an introduction to horror films you could do a lot worse than start your kids off with this one!

And what about the bad?

There has been a lot of ugly talk about who directed this and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Steven Spielberg wrote and produced it but part of the contract for directing ‘E.T.’ was that he was forbidden from directing another film whilst that movie was still in production. Keen to get the movie out he brought in Tobe Hooper as a director for hire due to his incredible work making ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’. What followed can be likened to a big brother letting his little brother play with his favourite toy but telling him exactly what game to play and eventuallytaking the toy back from him and playing with it himself.

It looks like a Spielberg film, feels like a Spielberg film and some of the stark contrast in tone of the scenes do suggest two directors at work. We have the beauty of the stairway ghost, wonder of the old watches falling from the ceiling and the childhood fear of scary toys coming to life contrasted with the ugly face ripping (left), corpses being flung at the family and one of the kids being almost eaten alive by a giant tree.

The actors seem divided about who directed the film with some saying Spielberg was the controlling influence and others saying Hooper called the shots when he was on set but one thing’s for sure and that is that Spielberg’s creative involvement was above and beyond the role of producer. The production was investigated by The Directors’ Guild of America and Spielberg felt compelled to write a public letter of apology to Hooper over the rumours that he didn’t direct the film. Hooper didn’t direct another film for three years, returning with the ridiculously entertaining ‘Lifeforce’ whilst Spielberg went on to bigger and better films as we all know. A very ugly footnote to what I’ve always regarded as a part of the development of my love for horror films.

Any themes?

I genuinely find it interesting that the film is set in an idyllic, sleepy suburb and Spielberg has a history of setting his stories in such areas and showing that what’s on the outside doesn’t reflect what’s going on in the inside. Here we’re presented with a seemingly perfect family but what’s going on behind closed doors, presumably without the knowledge of any of their neighbours, is truly nightmarish. In fact there is a brief scene where the neighbours do come out and they simply don’t want to know. Turning a blind eye. The only time we see the neighbours round is for a bit of self-indulgent fun in front of the football game, when they really need help they bury their heads in the sand.

He also takes a swipe at American history and the fact that today’s society is built on the death and destruction of others. Here that is done literally with the suburban housing estate that so very often represents the ideal of American living, being built on a cemetery where they only moved the tombstones and not the bodies. Just like in certain sections of American history where the dead are remembered and acknowledged but not commemorated or celebrated.

Release history

The film has never suffered censorship as a consequence of violent or offensive content, other than for early showings on TV. However there is one interesting ‘edit’. When you watch the film there is a terrible slice between the scene where Diane and Carol-Anne show Steve the poltergeist activity in the kitchen and when they go and talk to their neighbours. Apparently there were a few lines of dialogue that berated one of the major pizza outlets that resulted in a threat to sue following preview screenings. Rather than risk a lawsuit over a couple of lines of throwaway dialogue, the scene was hastily and sloppily re-edited to the one present in all current versions.

Cultural Impact

It was a reasonable hit at the time and one of the highest grossing horror films up to that point, largely down to the fact that the distributors successfully campaigned for a ‘PG’ rating after initially being rated ‘R’. It spawned two sequels and an unrelated, in name only TV series. James Wan’s incredibly creepy ‘Insidious’ initially started out as a remake of ‘Poltergeist’ and you can see the common themes of haunted child, suburban setting, parapsychologists investigation and a journey into ‘the 4th dimension’. However, they decided against that and wisely gave the film its own identity. A literal sequel was made in 2015 which, though not the disaster many made it out to be, is far from a classic in its own right!

Bizarrely it started the career of Drew Barrymore despite her not featuring in the film. She auditioned for the role of Carol-Anne but didn’t get the part as Hooper and Spielberg wanted someone a little more angelic. However Spielberg remembered her, subsequently cast her as Gertie in ‘E.T.’ and a star was born!

Final Thoughts…

Low on scares, in fact you could argue that Spielberg’s own first two Indiana Jones movies feature more moments of genuine horror, but high on fantasy and entertainment it serves as a pretty good family film were it not for a few gross out moments to please the horror crowd. I would imagine that, like me, a lot of adults of a certain age’s first experience of horror films was this one, ‘House’ or ‘Piranha’ and for that I will always love this film.

Memorable quotes

Carol-Anne: “They’re here…”

Tangina: “I am addressing the living.”

Tangina: “Go into the light, there is peace and tranquillity in the light."

Diane: "Steven...don't let go."

Tangina: “This house is clean”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘House’, ‘Insidious’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Tagline: “If Jason still haunts you, you’re not alone!”
Duration: 92 minutes

Film Quality: 2/5
Gore Content: 3/5
Entertainment Value:1.5/5
Originality: 3/5

Introduction

So what do you do when the 4th instalment of a successful franchise is a huge hit but the killer has been chopped to bits, his head sliced in half and it was unambiguously called ‘The Final Chaper’? Make a sequel of course!!! Yes, Jason’s inexplicably back to have another pop at the kid who killed him, who’s now a young adult and still suffering from the trauma of his ordeal.

Tommy - a shell of the happy go lucky kid we saw in Part 4

In a nutshell

Tommy Jarvis (left) arrives as the new mental health patient in a halfway house to continue his rehabilitation into society after suffering a breakdown due to his own violent actions at the end of part 4. But a murder at the institute causes him to start seeing Jason again and with kids being sliced and diced left, right and centre, is it all in his mind or has Jason risen from the grave once again to wreak havoc on a new bunch of hapless youngsters and innocent bystanders.

Pam - a resourceful final girl

So what’s good about it?

Christ, this is going to be difficult…well, for one thing it tried to do something that I don’t think any other slasher film up to that point had attempted and that is to focus on the surviving victim of the previous instalment. Yes, ‘Halloween 2’ did it a few years earlier but it started at the exact moment the original ended whereas this film is separated by six years within the ‘Friday the 13th’ universe, introducing us to a young man whose life will never be the same again. Tommy is distant, living in fear, not quite sure of his own mind and this a refreshing look at what surviving a horror can do to you. It’s such a shame that not enough is truly made of it.

It does feature some pretty colourful characters, particularly Reggie who is the young boy Tommy most relates to who displays interest and shows respect for Tommy’s mask making talents. Some of the characters are clearly there for comic relief, especially Ethel and her manchild son who show up a couple of times and have ‘victim’ tattooed on their foreheads! As director and co-write Danny Steinmann was instructed to include a gory death every 8 minutes, none of the characters are sufficiently fleshed out to give a damn about any of them. The only one I sympathised with in the slightest was Jake but only due to the simplest of plot devices as he’s spurned and humiliated by the one girl he has feelings for. It’s THAT devoid of emotion, charm and heart that such a ‘lowest common denominator’ scene works!

This could have had a more spectacular conclusion before

MPAA intervention

I have no doubt that the gore effects will have lifted the film but, as was the case with previous instalments, it was hacked to pieces by the machetes of the MPAA. Pretty much every single murder scene was shorn of the red stuff which, given the writers’ brief was to include a steady stream of gory murder, takes away the reason for the film existing in the first place. Take that away and you’re left with almost zero characterisation, no worthwhile dialogue, and a pale imitation of the four films that went before it.

There is one point of note for this film…did you know that it is the first film in the franchise to refer to the masked maniac as ‘Jason Vorhees’? Previously he was only referred to as ‘Jason’ (his name wasn’t uttered once in part 3!) which is kind of ironic considering (and this is a spoiler alert so look away now if you don’t want to know the score!) that, technically speaking, this is the only film that doesn’t feature him at all!!!

And what about the bad?

It would be a little harsh to say ‘everything’ but one of the best things you can say about this is that it isn’t the worst of the series…that’s a toss-up between parts 7, 8 and ‘Final Friday’ which shows how bad they are!!! But really it is dire. Characters are introduced purely so that they can be dispatched two minutes later (the farmhand, the couple in the diner, Reggie’s brother and his girlfriend, the couple in the car that breaks down), it is truly terrible and as original as a Justin Bieber tribute act.

It’s almost a parody of itself with most characters having sex, drinking, taking drugs or about to beat their girlfriends before quickly getting ‘punished’ by our masked killer. And speaking of our killer (another spoiler alert) it really is a terrible twist to have a minor, barely seen character revealed as the killer in an almost ‘Scooby-Doo’ moment that makes you feel short changed, another slap in the face to add insult to injury.

A pre-credits scene with Corey Feldman, filmed on a day off

from shooting 'The Goonies'!

Any themes?

Unfortunately this film isn’t smart enough to have any themes other than the standard ‘punish the youth for their sins’ message that’s featured in many superior slashers, including the preceding four parts of the ‘Friday the 13th’ franchise. As previously stated, it tried to make a comment on the state of mind of a survivor but wastes the opportunity…where is the survivor guilt? Where is the family support, or commentary on the lack of alternative support? What about the genuine attempt to reintegrate into society? This final point is barely touched upon which is a real shame and just adds to the frustrations of an entry into a franchise that had already promised its final chapter.

Release History

This, at least is interesting! When the MPAA saw the first edit of the film they demanded some 16 cuts which accounted for virtually every murder and sex scene within the film. Most of them were shortened and one was possibly re-shot (the girl dancing in her room was reportedly slaughtered with a machete to the crotch and there is photographic evidence to back this up - see left) along with the outdoor sex scene in the woods which was rumoured to have been reduced from three or four minutes to a brief ten second glimpse. As with some previous entries there is a lot of rumour and hearsay and we will probably never know what the original uncut version would have looked like but the version that was eventually put out by the MPAA was too strong for the UK’s censors.

Oh yes, the BBFC went a little crazy themselves with the scissors, cutting a further one and a half minutes out of the already cut version. Some incredibly tame nudity (Tina on the floor following the already cut sex scene), the same girl’s murder with garden shears (I always assumed her head was cut off but no – eyes gauged out apparently as the aftermath was also cut - see right), the guy with the belt being tightened around his eyes and the shots of the victims stored in one of the rooms – all gone! It’s not surprising that this particular instalment has not had good reviews and isn’t fondly remembered when its’ only redeeming feature, the gore effects, were removed.

The version currently available on DVD in the UK is the best available version with BBFC cuts waived but it’s still the ‘R’ rated version courtesy of the MPAA. There seems to be no desire to release a restored version which baffles me as I’m sure that curiosity alone would make it a best seller.

Cultural Impact

It has become a cult film but only due to its association with the franchise because, as slasher films go, it falls firmly in the ‘could do WAY better’ pile. By all accounts the intention was to introduce a new trilogy that would feature a new killer in each one, in fact it ends with the suggestion that Tommy Jarvis may be the next killer. This idea was firmly rejected by the time ‘Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives’ got underway which was, thankfully, a much better film and a drastic change of tone, going for comedy and one of the first examples of a self-referential horror film that predates ‘Wes Craven’s New Nightmare by eight years! Other than that it remains a good example of how not to make a slasher film interesting.

Final Thoughts

More resembling a giallo than a slasher film in the end but without the style, grace and elan, this is a poor entry into the ultimately successful franchise. Despite that it was a hit, making its money back and then some, but compared to the ones that went before it, it was a disappointment at the box office. A couple of extra marks for at least trying something different it then loses them again by not picking up the ball and running with what could have been an engrossing subplot. ‘Halloween H2O’ tried something similar in 1998 and ultimately managed to balls it up even more than this one and the ‘Scream’ franchise dabbled with it a little; there is a good movie to be found in that idea…we just need a clever writer and director to pull it off.

Memorable Quotes

Ethel: “Don’t you come near me Sheriff, I’m warning you…I got a bomb on me…”

Demon: “It’s them damn Enchiladas.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

The other ‘Friday the 13th’ movies, ‘Body Count’, ‘The Burning’

The DPP 39: Video Nasties - Part 5

In 1984, the Video Recordings Act ushered in a terrifying new era in UK home video entertainment.  The regulation and subsequent censorship of home videos by the British Board of Film Classification led to a number of films being seized by the authorities and prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. In total, 39 of these films were successfully prosecuted, over the coming months The Horror Video will look very briefly at the release history of each film and its current status. To view the rest of the series…

Part 1: ‘Absurd’, ‘Anthropophagus’ and ‘Axe’, click here
Part 2: ‘Bay of Blood’, ‘The Beast in Heat’ and ‘Blood Feast’, click here
Part 3: ‘Blood Rites’, ‘Bloody Moon’ and ‘The Burning’, click here
Part 4: ‘Cannibal Apocalypse’, ‘Cannibal Ferox’ and ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, click here

Title: ‘The Cannibal Man’ (1980)

Director: Eloy de la Iglesia
Uncut running time: 98 minutes
Alternative titles: ‘Week of the Killer’, ‘The Apartment on the 13^th Floor’, ‘La Semana del Asesino’

A former slaughterhouse worker is attacked by a taxi driver and ends up killing him in self-defence. This sets in motion a series of events that results in more killings as he keeps trying to cover up his crimes. Surprisingly political, it does have a certain down and dirty feel about it but is nowhere near as exploitative as the UK title suggests…for starters there’s no suggestion of cannibalism and most likely came under fire from the authorities due to its title and the opening scenes which features real life footage of animals in the slaughterhouse.

Intervision put the film out completely uncut in 1981 and had a decent run before it was seized and banned in July 1983. This one is particularly rare as it was released in a brittle cardboard slipcase rather than a big plastic box so suffered rips and tears. Redemption Video put out a version that was missing just three seconds and hasn’t been re-released since.

Current status: Unavailable but remains passed by the BBFC with 3 seconds of cuts, uncut in the US since 2007 on Blue Underground.

Title: ‘The Devil Hunter’ (1980)

Director: Jess Franco (Credited as Clifford Brown!)
Uncut running time: 102 minutes
Alternative titles: ‘The Man Hunter’, ‘Mandingo Manhunter’, ‘Sexo Canibale’, ‘Il Cacciatore di Uomino’, ‘El Canibale’, ‘Junfrau unter Kannibalen’


The most frightening thing about this terrible film is that anyone sat through it long enough to discover if there was anything worth banning it for. In what sounds like a made for Sci-Fi Channel movie starring Tyra Banks, a model gets kidnapped by cannibals and is taken into the jungle resulting in a hunter being recruited to find her. It’s complicated by the fact that a ‘Devil God’ may also be involved, cue a huge amount of people scratching their heads wondering around in the jungle, looking lost with a little stock footage thrown in.

This became one of the rarest and collectible of the video nasties after it was seized and prosecuted in August 1984, towards the end of the moral panic. It had previously been available in a pre-cut version on Cinehollywood. It’s a mystery as to why this was banned, probably because of Franco’s reputation and that it bore a passing resemblance to other cannibal movies but it really is very tame. An uncut DVD was put out by Severin in the UK in 2008.

Current status: Available in the UK and US uncut on Severin.

Title: Don’t go in the Woods (1979)

Director: James Bryan
Uncut running time: 82 minutes
Alternative title: ‘Don’t go in the Woods…Alone!


Another film that had no business being on the nasties list. The extremely flimsy plot simply involves a bunch of kids backpacking in the woods and being picked off by a maniac in a number of gory ways. It probably sounds better than it is and there are some laughs to be had but largely because it’s so inept. A budget of just $20,000, they clearly had fun filming but I think it’s fair to say that it’s only available in such a good package to buy now because it was placed on the shopping list by the DPP back in the early 80s. Most of the gore was shot afterwards to make the film more interesting!

Released uncut on the Video Releasing Organisation label in March 1982 it was banned a year and a half later. It didn’t get another release until February 2007 where the passage of time and restoration of the collective sanity within the BBFC saw it get through uncut with a ‘15’ certificate. Film 2000 put it out first before 88 Films (the cover has an 18 certificate) put the film out with a number of bonus features including two commentaries.

Current status: Available uncut on 88 Films in the UK, uncut on Vinegar Syndrome in the US

Evil Dead 2 (1986)

Tagline: ‘Kiss Your Nerves Goodbye’
Running Time: 87 minutes

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

Introduction

How do you follow up ‘The Ultimate Experience in Gruelling Terror’? Answer: By repeating the formula but jettisoning the dark and, at times, nasty undertow and replace it with balls out comedy and some of the most insanely entertaining sight gags and camera tricks in horror film history. It’s no secret that Sam Raimi was a little concerned with the reaction to his first outing into ‘Evil Dead’ folklore, particularly the ‘tree rape’ scene, and the film was banned in many territories, including the UK…his response was to come up with something that couldn’t possibly be taken seriously but was still in keeping with the original’s basic theme. What followed has grown to become what some regard as a horror classic of the VHS era.

In a Nutshell

Hapless Ash takes his girlfriend up to a cabin in the woods and finds an old tape recorder with a recitation of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis…the Book of the Dead. Upon playing it all hell breaks loose, he kills his zombified girlfriend, cuts off his own hand and generally saves the day, in a manner of speaking.

So, what’s good about it?

It’s relentlessly entertaining! There is not a single frame wasted on needless exposition, the entire first 45 minutes of the first film is condensed into about five minutes of this remake/sequel with the rest of the film played entirely for laughs with a few scares along the way. Sam Raimi seems to have a ball, throwing pretty much every single colour and consistency of liquid and gloop at Bruce Campbell in the name of slapstick, Campbell taking it like a true comedian!

The star of the film is undoubtedly Campbell. He delivers his lines with laconic style and shows some fantastic acrobatic skills during the scene where he has a fight with his own possessed hand that is a joy to watch. His character grows throughout the film from slightly idiotic buffoon to chainsaw wielding hero who calls out the demons to go toe to toe with a fistful of boomstick and a sideline in attitude. Who can forget arguably the coolest montage in cinematic history where Ash and Annie go into the work shed, ‘A-Team’ style, attach the chainsaw to Ash’s arm stump, fashion a shotgun holster for Ash to swing the gun in one hand, over the shoulder, into the holster before uttering that single syllable that would define his career…”Groovy!”

Servicing Campbell’s acting is Raimi’s incredible direction and the electrifying camerawork on show where he delves into his bag of tricks to come up with some truly original shots and effects. I love the matte shot where the sun goes down behind Ash as he stands by the fallen bridge, there’s something wonderfully surreal about it. The frantic shot where he propels Ash through the woods, throwing branches and leaves at him as he whizzes past, the point of view shots of the evil force chasing Ash through the crawlspace of the cabin, the quick fire editing and reverse zoom shots during the scene where ‘something is trying to force its way into our world’. It all adds up to one gloriously demented movie that never gets boring, repetitive and constantly innovates.

Along with ‘An American Werewolf in London’ this is the greatest example of a film that gets the balance of horror and comedy spot on. It has enough to offer a few chills with the sound, particularly the eerie ‘wind’ effect which was apparently a genuine sound recorded within the on location cabin, and unsettling camerawork . The undead are both funny and grotesque, the gore is plentiful and very ‘Monty Python’ (one of Raimi’s influences for this film was ‘The Three Stooges’), a bizarre recurring villain (namely our hero’s severed right hand!) and anyone who claims they saw the ending coming is telling porky pies. All in all this is a highly satisfying movie of whch you never tire of finding any old excuse to dust it down and shove the shiny disc into your blu-ray player!

What about the bad?

The reputation of the first film ensured that some people came to this sequel expecting another out and out fright fest. That didn’t happen and Raimi’s ‘toning down’ of the nastiness that caused the original’s notoriety doesn’t please everyone. It’s refreshing to find a sequel that doesn’t try to out-gore its predecessor (for example if they do release another ‘Saw’ film then I can only assume they’ll just place the victims in an orderly queue and disembowel the lot of them with as many power tools and contraptions as they can find) but the insertion of so much humour isn’t to everyone’s taste.

Despite the astounding camerawork, Bruce Campbell being Bruce Campbell and a barrel load of laughs, it’s not particularly original, retreading a lot of the same ground, locations and scenes as the first film. The jury’s still out as to whether or not this is a sequel or remake, why would Ash go back to the cabin and not know what he’s let himself in for? Personally it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to me but critics will criticise and not everyone is capable of suspending disbelief.

The only thing that genuinely annoys me is the superfluous characters of Bobby Jo and Ed (who does make a pretty good zombie to be fair...see left!!!). Bobby Jo is sassy but not enough is made of the personality clash with Annie and her eventual demise is pretty poor and not in keeping with the rest of the series…how come she doesn’t come back? Ed does even less, so wooden he could have played the log cabin and doesn’t create much havoc as an undead character either. Thank god for Dan Hicks’ character Jake otherwise Ashley and Annie would have little to react to.

Release History

Ah…the MPAA. By all accounts several attempts were made to get the film a US ‘R’ rating including cuts to a scene where Ed’s zombie wanders around with half a head, Ash eats a squirrel and a gorier hand chop (although the “Who’s laughing now” chainsaw to the hand scene is, see right, for me, the most effective in the film) were all excised or re-filmed. The irony here is that it didn’t work and the film was still released unrated - the original cut of the film is considered lost.

In the UK it suffered two seconds of cuts, both for kicks to the head, which were waived some time ago and the uncut version has since been downgraded from an ‘18’ certificate to more sensible ‘15’ – the BBFC lightening up quite a bit when it comes to horror-comedy. An extended version which is around 3 minutes longer has been released in Germany with some of the scenes described above present but it’s still not clear if this was the original, pre-MPAA version.

Any Themes?

Other than a brief sub-plot which beautifully foreshadows the ending and throws up the issue of destiny, it’s just Sam Raimi taking some advice he was given a long time ago that if the pace every starts to drop, chuck in a bit of gore. A short making of documentary called ‘The Gore the Merrier’ pretty much sums up this philosophy.

As a quick aside, am I the only one who thinks that this film is loosely based on ‘The Haunting’? Some of the lines are the same with Annie, answering a question as to what her parents found in The Book of the Dead, says “Probably nothing, but just maybe a gateway to another world”, echoing a line from Dr Markway. Some of the off kilter camera work is also reminiscent of the 1963 classic and the ghost of Annie’s father appears following loud booming sounds from the other side of a closed door. Frozen food for thought!

Cultural Impact

Over the years it’s grown from cult oddity to genuine horror classic status with fans and critics alike lauding it for its inventive visuals. This was the film that really put Sam Raimi on the map as a visionary director and many of his directorial flourishes and camera tricks are present in his big budget Hollywood blockbusters and ‘Spiderman’ films.

It also gave rise to the cult of Bruce Campbell and showed what a great ‘visual gag’ of an actor he could be. The character he plays in ‘Burn Notice’ is pure Ash and he created a niche in playing the type of cocky, self-centred idiot that you should hate but can’t help warming to. Thankfully Raimi and Campbell found a way of bringing Ash back to the small screen with the riotous ‘Ash Vs Evil Dead’ TV series (left) which takes the tone of ‘Evil Dead 2’ as its selling point to become a massive TV hit and a light-hearted antidote to the brilliant but relentlessly grim ‘The Walking Dead’.

It also showed the world what Greg Nicotero, very shortly after working with Tom Savini on ‘Day of the Dead’, could do shortly after starting his now infamous KNB team.

Final Thoughts

There is so much fun to be had watching ‘Evil Dead 2’, it’s the ‘Ferris Beuller’s Day Off’ of horror films. Forget that it treads similar ground as its predecessor and celebrate the fact that rather than treading it in the same way, it does forward rolls and back flips, to take us, ultimately in a new direction and give us a very different film.

Memorable Quotes

Ash: “Groovy!”

Ash: “That’s right, who’s laughing now……who’s laughing now, aaaarrrrgggghhhhh.”

Annie: “That thing in the cellar is not my mother.”

Reflected Ash: “We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw, does that sound...”fine”?’

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘An American Werewolf in London’, ‘Cabin in the Woods’, ‘The Howling’, ‘Return of the Living Dead’

Deep Red (1975)

Tagline: ‘When was the last time you were really scared?’
UK Running Time: 98 Minutes (US ‘R’ rated version), 106 minutes (Theatrical version), 126 minutes (European Version)

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

Introduction

Having already carved out a reputation as a fine director with his astonishing debut ‘Bird with the Crystal Plumage’, ‘The Cat o’ Nine Tails’ and ‘Four Flies on Grey Velvet’ (later to become known as his ‘Animal Trilogy’), Dario Argento moved away from the Giallo to try his hand at comedy with ‘The Five Days’. It sank without trace so in 1975 he returned to the Giallo with what would become regarded as one of, if not the greatest example of the Italian sub-genre, ‘Deep Red’, or ‘Profondo Rosso’ in his home country. For the uninitiated, the Giallo is a thriller combining horror or elements of the supernatural alongside moments of highly stylised violence and gore with a whodunit construct that takes its name, literally meaning ‘Yellow’, from the lurid coloured sleeves of the pulp novels that inspired them. This is the film that cemented Argento’s reputation as ‘The Italian Hitchcock’, allowed him to take his place as a horror auteur and took him on an unbroken run of six movies that can rightfully be regarded as masterpieces.

In a nutshell

Pianist Marc Daly witnesses the murder of renowned psychic Helga Ulmann in Milan but there’s a part of the murder scene that preys on his mind, a small detail that he believes was removed from the scene that he can’t quite recall but knows must be important. When a local journalist publishes his position as an eyewitness in her newspaper, bringing him to the attention of the killer, he knows he must try and solve that missing piece of the puzzle before he becomes the next victim.

What’s good about it?

It oozes style from every frame. Argento isn't known for his coherent narratives, favouring style and flamboyance over substance but in ‘Deep Red’ he finds a perfect blend. The short, dreamlike fetishistic scenes that take you into the mind of a psychopath watch the camera glide over marbles, creepy dolls and knives against a black background are just stunning in their execution. There’s a remarkable wide shot (left) where characters shout at each other from the edge of the screen, seemingly set up purely to allow Argento to perfectly frame them either side of a giant statue to dwarf them as insignificant bystanders to the cameras focus. The camera glides down the exterior of buildings and through a window to focus our attention on TV screen featuring a news report and a standout shot where the camera follows the blade of a knife up and then down into a victim’s neck to make the ugly stunningly beautiful.

Argento’s films have frequently been criticised for neglecting the actors, giving them implausible scripts in favour of stunning set pieces. Despite those criticisms this is a well written film and characters are given ample room to breath and develop in what is a mature and well written script.  The chemistry between David Hemmings’ protagonist and Daria Nicolodi’s journalist (right) is very well constructed with some good verbal sparring and comedy that go against accusations of sexism that have plagued Argento's productions. I've always found it interesting that a director so often accused of misogyny should have such strong female characters in the majority of his films, heroines that take centre stage, save the day and take the initiative over relatively weak male protagonists – Nicolodi is the forceful one, takes the initiative in the relationship with Hemmings and the investigation, saves his life twice and beats him at armwrestling.

I mentioned the set pieces earlier, they’re all foreshadowed in the most subtle of details. Hemmings gets a steam burn in a café and moments later we see a character drown in boiling water. His character, Marc, compares playing the piano to smashing his father’s teeth, later in the film a character has his teeth smashed out against a fireplace. A doll loses its head in the same manner as another character towards the end of the film. Doubling and rhyming plays a big part in ‘Deep Red’, indeed the trigger for the murders appears to be (and this isn’t a spoiler) a nursery rhyme that resurrects a childhood trauma whilst mirrors (a reflection of the soul?) and windows play significant roles in the opening and closing scenes. Indeed this notional of duality, hidden characteristics and motives is taken further in the sexuality of at least two characters, the assumption of who the killer is and gender identity, reflecting the device by which the killer is eventually identified.

It’s the first Argento film to feature a trace of the supernatural. Our first victim, Helga, is a psychic who picks up on the murderous thoughts of our villain in the opening scenes, the thoughts still terrorising her after the audience has left her performance. We’re presented with what appears to be a point of view shot of somebody watching Helga with her agent, there is nobody there so is it the supernatural force of our murderous psychopath? Hemmings’ investigations take him to a library where a clue leads him to a book on ghost stories that talks about a nursery rhyme linked to a haunted house. It’s not the all-out supernatural horror that we get from the incomparable ‘Suspiria’ or its surreal sequel ‘Inferno’ but it’s starting to head that way and gives the film a sense of unease missing from his earlier Gialli that would punctuate his films from hereon in.

What about the bad?

Audiences today may struggle with some ‘of the time’ fashions and music but that doesn’t date the film as much as it should…it’s very much a foreign film in every way and Argento plays on this in a big way by casting Hemmings as a Brit abroad. My only criticism would be a gruesome death involving a bin lorry which, if you'll pardon the pun, drags on and is a little on the unintentionally funny side but other than that, to me at least, it’s a wonderfully crafted film that’s almost perfect in every way.

Any themes?

There’s a surprising amount to say about gender differences in this film. There’s a lot of verbal and physical sparring between our male and female leads but we also have significant character development with the revelation, to Marc at least, about his best friend’s sexuality. There’s ambiguity about the gender of the killer and what about the flashback scene – is it a girl or a boy who picks up the knife?

What belongs and what doesn’t belong is an interesting theme that keeps coming to the surface. Marc is a stranger in a foreign land, Carlo is embarrassed when his hidden homosexuality is revealed to Marc, the clue that leads Marc to the house of the screaming child is a foreign plant that wouldn’t take to the climate and of course there’s the missing painting that Marc believes belonged in Helga’s flat that has gone missing.

And then of course there’s doubles and opposites. We’ve talked about mirrors and rhyming scenes but there’s more than that, barriers are removed to reveal secrets and character traits. The opening scene sees the camera glide towards theatre curtains which are peeled back to reveal Marc’s occupation as a jazz pianist performing with his orchestra. The hidden room in the house of the screaming child reveals what is behind our killer’s trauma, Marc witnesses Helga’s death as she screams silently behind the window to her flat, the same window through which he thinks he sees the killer flee…the final shot is incredibly apt as Marc’s face is reflected back at us in a pool of deep red blood. There’s so much imagery and meaning pouring out of every frame that you can glean something different from it upon repeated viewing.

Release History

Like most of Argento’s films it has had a complicated release, not least in the US where distributers, keen to market it as a slasher film, butchered 30 minutes from the film and renamed it ‘The Hatchet Murders’. It fared better in European territories where the theatrical version lost around 15 minutes of dialogue and exposition, reportedly Argento’s favoured cut. There is also a European version which runs the full 126 minutes.

In the UK, Redemption Video released the full European cut in 1993, subtitled and in widescreen, but suffered minor BBFC cuts of two dogs fighting and a lizard impaled on a pin (it completely changes the meaning of the scene – the girl’s father slapping her in the face, seemingly for no reason in the cut version, making him appear unhinged and NOT the little girl who had tortured the lizard!).

‘Deep Red’ has been available uncut in the UK since 2011 in two versions, both the European and International cuts. Thanks to the wonders of DVD and blu ray audio tracks you can watch an integrated cut which dubs the majority of the European cut, however those additional 15 minutes were never dubbed into English so these segments (sometimes just a couple of sentences within a scene) remain subtitled. Check out the three disc Arrow version if you can,which also includes the soundtrack, on blu-ray for the definitive version.

Cultural Impact

‘Deep Red’ cemented Argento’s reputation as one of the hottest properties in Europe. Alfred Hitchcock, upon seeing the film, reportedly commented “This Italian fellow is starting to worry me!” and, as I wrote earlier, marked the start of his golden period that was followed by ‘Suspiria’, ‘Inferno’, ‘Tenebrae’, ‘Phenomena’ and ended with the gloriously demented ‘Opera’. It also marked the first collaboration with Daria Nicolodi, his future wife, who was a mainstay of this body of work.

Argento’s influence, and this film in particular, cannot be underestimated. James Wan cited his work as a major inspiration for ‘Saw’, just watch the scene where the doll makes an appearance from behind the curtain (left) and see the similarities between that and the puppet from Wan’s film. Brian de Palma, John Carpenter, M Night Shyamalan, David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, Sam Raimi, Takashi Miike, George Romero, Guillermo del Toro and countless others have all taken cues and doffed their caps to Argento at some point. John Carpenter’s classic score for ‘Halloween’ took its cue from Goblin’s score for ‘Deep Red’, that repetitive piano indicating a single minded desire to kill – it’s difficult to hear one and not be reminded of the other.

Final Thoughts

An international hit at the time, it’s regarded as the very best of its type and rightly held as a classic of Italian cinema, regardless of genre. Confirming Argento as a major talent, the film has influenced a generation of film-makers in terms of its style and set pieces. Fans of the Italian often argue about which is his best film, which is a testament to his glory days rather than the quality of this particular film, but if you’re looking for a taut, well-crafted, intelligent film and don’t mind subtitles then it’s the perfect film to start your Argento journey.

Memorable Quotes

Marc: “There’s someone in the house….he’s trying to kill me.”

Helga: “I feel a presence, a twisted mind sending me thoughts, perverted, murderous thoughts…you have killed and you will kill again.”

Carlo: “Maybe the painting was meant to disappear because it represented something important.”

Carlo (to Marc): “I am the proletarian of the Pianoforte while you are the bourgeois…you play for the sake of art and enjoy it. I play for survival…it is not the same thing.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Amer’, ‘Se7en’, ‘Dressed to Kill’, ‘Blow Up’, ‘The Eyes of Laura Mars’