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)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Tagline: “Who will survive….and what will be left of them?”

Duration: 82 minutes

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

Introduction

It’s rare these days that a film’s reputation precedes itself but back in the days of VHS, particularly in the UK, this film was synonymous with video nasties, despite never officially receiving a ban. We were told by people claiming to have ‘watched’ the film how unbelievably gory it was, how limbs were flying left, right and centre and how their friends threw up and passed out halfway through. Saying that this film was notorious is a bit like saying NWA were in a bit of a mood when they recorded ‘Straight Outta Compton’ and, though time has changed the way this film is regarded from sick obscenity to full blown classic, it remains a true landmark in horror cinema

In a nutshell

A group of friends in a camper van enter a world of pain when they visit a former haunt in deepest Texas and fall prey to the salacious appetites of a family of cannibals. Sounds like a simple premise and it is, but it’s not about the story, it’s about how it’s told…

Pure terror

So what’s good about it?

The tone and atmosphere of this film is relentlessly bleak and from the opening monologue, which pretty much seals the fate of the youngsters to whom we’re about to be introduced, to the final shot there is virtually no hope or salvation offered. We’re hit with flash photography of something that looks very much like a decomposing corpse before being slapped around the face with a grotesque ‘work of art’, a radio news report about grave robbing and some ear splitting, experimental music played over the top of images of sunspot activity, well known for amplifying madness. Within the first two minutes we’re told the kids are going to die, the dead are being disturbed and astrological forces are on hand to conspire against everyone you’re going to meet in the next 80 minutes. We even hear one of group’s horoscope…”There are times where you won’t believe that what’s happening to you is actually real”.

The score, by director Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell, is truly incredible. It’s freeform to say the least with low frequency hums, crashing symbols and reportedly used household objects which were distorted in the sound studio to stunning effect, apparently to echo the sounds animals hear in the slaughterhouse. There’s very little in the way of recognisable notes which represents the omnipresent danger that presides over these unfortunate teens and the barely disguised insanity harboured within the twisted Sawyer family. The unbelievably ominous low drone that accompanies the fluid camera as we and Sally catch a first glimpse of the house fills you with dread despite the glorious sunshine and carefree attitude of our hapless teen.

The set design as well just oozes decay, death and imprisonment, particularly when Pam stumbles into the room filled with furniture constructed from recognisably human bones, lampshades made out of tanned skin and a chicken cooped up inside a cage barely big enough to contain its bulk. Then there’s Leatherface’s lair with meathooks, a slab for cutting up the meat, bloodstained walls. There’s the outdoor area with nets covering what looks like a massive car lot as it becomes apparent that the family have been doing this for years and of course the final ‘dinner’ scene which is about as nightmarish as had ever been filmed up to that point.

The devastating final shot

Hooper’s direction on the tightest of tight budgets is excellent and it’s a shame that he never quite recaptured whatever it was that inspired him to make this film so great. The performances he gets out of his actors is phenomenal, although by all accounts he put them through absolute hell, all of them receiving injuries at some point to the extent that the screams, terrorisation and appearance of utter hopelessness in many cases could well have been genuine. That said, Marilyn Burns truly set the standard for the final girl that I don’t think has been surpassed, taking around 40 minutes to document what would normally account for ten in later efforts. The way she barely clings on to sanity in those final shots sends shivers down my spine…it’s not a cry of relief that she’s the one who survived, there is a genuine sense that there is a trauma there which will never be shaken.

For me that is what makes this film so incredibly effective and that is the realism. As the film is virtually bloodless, there are no rubbery effects to date the movie, instead your own mind fills in the blanks and that stays with you long after the film ends.

What about the bad?

After praising the film for acknowledging that what your mind conjures up on its own is far worse than anything you can show on screen, I do of course mean apart from the terrible 70s fashions and hair styles! Yes, it’s from the time, but those flares and sideburns are a crime for which some of them deserve their fate!!!

Any themes?

There is a lot more going on in this film than the casual observer gives it credit for. Hooper subverts the idea of family as good, particularly during the horrific dinner scene which turns the traditional family dinner into an absolute nightmare. You have Leatherface as the mother (complete with absurd make up and wig) there’s the chef as the father figure, the Hitchhiker as the naughty little kid and Grandfather as the elder statesman. The fact that the three compos mentis members laugh and joke their way through the scene makes it even more horrific, juxtaposed with the close ups of Sally’s terrified eyes and screaming face. Family isn’t always the cornerstone of a good home.

There is plenty of social comment as well. As one of the characters says, the slaughterhouses have been closed and modern technology has implemented new, more efficient ways of slaughtering cattle, making many of its workforce redundant. This has left many small towns in middle America destitute and dying, the big cities and authorities leaving them to fend for themselves. In Hooper’s vision America is literally eating itself, embodied by the cannibalistic antics of the Sawyer family.

Hooper was also intrigued by the coverage of world events, particularly the glee with which real life violence, especially in the case of the war in Vietnam where footage of the aftermath of battles would routinely show blood strewn across the streets. Vietnam was the first televised war and it occurred to Hooper that mankind was the real monster and the biggest threat to its own civilisation. By creating the character Leatherface, with his own features hidden by the skin of those he has killed, Hooper literally showed the human face to be the mask over which evil which could hide.

Release History

The BBFC really didn’t know what to do with this film and it very nearly undermined everything they were trying to achieve with censorship. The problem was not with any on screen violence, which is relatively tame and off screen (there’s more actual blood than fake blood – Marilyn Burns genuinely cut herself running through the woods and the cut on her finger during the dinner was also real!), but with the overall tone of the film which is incredibly oppressive and disturbing. You can’t censor the atmosphere of the film so when a cut version was submitted to the BBFC (some minor trims from the dinner scene) it made no difference whatsoever and remained unreleasable in their eyes.

The Wizard Video release, which was uncut and distributed in 1981, remained the only way to see this film as many local councils refused to grant a license to screen it in cinemas. It was never officially banned, partly because it was never re-released, and other than a few cinema and festival screenings in the London area it became one of those films where the only means of watching it was to buy a tenth generation copy for a fiver from Dave at The Dog and Duck.

Then came a surprise!!! In 1999 Blue Dolphin released the completely uncut version on VHS which became a runaway hit and also enjoyed a reasonably successful cinema run. But it was under Second Sight’s supervision that it received the best treatment, finally releasing a glorious three disc steelbook which was as comprehensive in content as its release history has been complicated.

Cultural Impact

Leatherface has become one of the true horror icons and the film was instrumental in predicting the slasher genre. Like ‘Psycho’ it was loosely based on the exploits of Ed Gein but was perhaps more explicit in the gruesome details, focusing on the more ghoulish aspects of his crimes rather than using it as the driver for a whodunit plot. Still as outlandishly popular now as it was in the years since it was released, we’re still seeing remakes and reboots, films bearing an uncanny resemblance and nods to the original. One of the most financially successful independent films of all time, it’s also one of the most influential.

In the US it was the last film rated ‘X’ before the introduction of the NC-17 rating (despite Hooper being convinced that the lack of on screen gore and violence would ensure a ‘PG’ rating!) and it also spawned a video game which was an almighty flop – so violent that many stores refused to stock it…imagine that in our era of violent shoot ‘em ups!!! I’m sure the next instalment featuring the exploits of everyone’s favourite chainsaw wielding maniac is just around the corner!!!

Final thoughts

About as pure a horror film as you could wish for, everything from the opening shot to the closing ‘dancing chainsaw’ scene is designed to frighten, unnerve and disorientate. Most films lose their impact over the years but Chainsaw has lost nothing and it just as devastatingly effective now as it was back in the mid-70s. It is an absolute depiction of madness on celluloid, the ferocity of which has rarely been matched since its release more than 40 years ago. Hooper would try again with a decent sequel and ‘Death Trap’ (aka ‘Eaten Alive’) which was more of a studio affair but he never did anything as raw and visceral as his first feature.

Memorable Quotes

Narrator: “Had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected, nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day.”

Attendant: “You don’t want to go messing around other folks’ property. If some folks don’t like it…they don’t mind showing you.”

Hitchhiker: “I have this knife.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘The Hills Have Eyes’, ‘Slaughterhouse’, ‘Eden Lake’, ‘Wolf Creek’

Beyond the Darkness (1979)

Tagline: “Even death can’t keep them apart”

Duration: 94 minutes

Film Quality: 3.5/5
Gore Content: 4/5
Entertainment Value:3/5
Originality: 3/5

Introduction

Joe D’Amato has filmed more Euro-sleaze than Adam Sandler has been in crap movies but he certainly outdoes himself with this one. Until last week I knew it by reputation, remembering one article in The Dark Side magazine way back in the 90s declaring that it would never receive an uncut release in the UK, instantly arousing my interest. Last year, still never having had a sniff of this film, discovered that 88 Films had an Indiegogo campaign to restore it in 2k along with three other movies, I decided I was in. When you wait the best part of 25 years to see a film, distorted expectation levels can lead to disappointment but this one delivers on its reputation in spades…it is seriously nasty!

In a nutshell

A taxidermist, Frank, loses his fiancé to illness, little knowing that it owes more to his housekeeper’s practice of ‘the dark arts’ than any medical condition. He injects his dearly deceased with a preservative, exhumes her, disembowels and stuffs her, laying her to rest in his bed as if she were still alive. Needless to say his housekeeper, Iris, is not pleased and from thereon in it’s carnage with a number of ‘guests’ meeting grisly ends.

So what’s good about it?

I tend to prefer straight up, honest to God horror, euro-sleaze has never really been a sub-genre that’s floated my boat but curiosity got the better of me in this instance so I thought I’d give it a go. Let’s just say that it delivers on its promise like a Michael Bay action flick…D’Amato knows his target audience and gives them exactly what they want. This ticks every box plus a few others that nobody really asked for. Hints of incest, necrophilia, cannibalism, the total destruction of the human body on multiple occasions, this is extreme to say the least.

The on screen gore is surprisingly well done and VERY gooey! After a slow start D’Amato hits you with the first set piece, Frank’s long and detailed disembowelling of his fiancé in which he, with an emotionless face, slowly pulls out her intestines, throws them in a bucket before eating her heart (lovely touch seeing the blood fly out of the severed arteries as he chows down!). He then sadistically pulls out the fingernails of a hitchhiker who walks in on this display, seemingly for the sheer fun of it. But that’s nothing compared to the limb by limb decapitation of an unfortunate jogger who is then put, piece by piece, in a bath of acid, let down the plug hole with the sloppy remains buried in the garden…oh, and then Iris eats a chicken casserole whilst still covered in her blood. Even Frank vomits at that point…yes, this rivals the levels of some of the cannibal films around at the time.

It has some very uncomfortable undertones! Yes, Iris is the housekeeper but as Frank is an orphan she is very much a mother figure so to see her breastfeed Frank (who must be in his mid 20s) is a little disconcerting to the say the least. She then later, right in front of Frank’s stuffed fiancee, gives him a hand job which takes notions of sexual perversion to all kinds of new levels. We don’t see it but the fact that he puts his bride to be in his bed…what the hell does he do to the corpse at night???

The one thing I wasn’t expecting was how well made this film was. The acting is top notch, particularly from the female members of the cast. Franca Stoppi is incredible as the steely eyed Iris, every inch the believable sociopath and utterly terrifying, particularly during the decapitation by cleaver scene and its aftermath. Also, despite playing the part of a corpse for pretty much the entire film, Cinzia Monreale really looks the part with her dead-eyed stare and chilling, expressionless face. It really shouldn’t be underestimated how difficult this must have been.

Finally there’s D’Amato’s direction which is perfectly paced and always engaging. You just have to look at some of Mario Bava’s later efforts (‘Five Dolls for an August Moon’ comes to mind) to know that films of this type can be incredibly boring and dull with terrible dialogue, flat direction and little thought given to plot. But D’Amato cleverly gives the actors room to breathe and it never outstays its welcome. It also helps to have the ever-reliable Goblin on board to provide a terrific score with driving synth and mellow piano juxtaposed depending on which character is on screen, further adding to the atmosphere.

And what about the bad?

As I said, euro-sleaze isn’t my thing and, fortunately for me, D’Amato places ‘Beyond the Darkness’ just the right side of horror whereas many of its type can easily fall into the category of borderline porn. For this reason I can see a lot of modern day audiences being turned completely off by this which is a shame because it is a surprisingly good and well-crafted film. Also, 88 Films very wisely included the original Italian dub with subtitles because the English language cut suffers from the kind of terrible acting and fake accents (I think the hitchhiker must have been dubbed by a relative of Dick Van Dyke, such was the ineptitude of the London accent!) that can render a good film laughable so stick with the original language version if you can

Any themes?

Yes, and all of them seedy! If Iris really has taken the place of his mother Frank has some serious Oedipal issues, not to mention his necrophiliac leanings. Yes, he’s suffered a trauma and he is clearly predisposed to having a fascination for resurrecting and preserving the dead through his work as a taxidermist. Now, before any taxidermists reading this (I’m sure there’s hundreds of you but it’d be just my luck!) I’m not saying that there’s a connection but the writers are clearly asking us to make that link between a seriously disturbed individual channelling his psychosis through his choice of hobby. His desire is to preserve his fiancée at her peak, glass eyes and all, so that she will forever be perfect and can’t let go of the fact that she has passed on.

There are shades of ‘Psycho’ in its bizarre family dynamic with Iris as the matriarch. However this premise is turned on its head by the object of the subversive male’s sexual desire front and centre as a corpse. Whereas the very much alive Iris brings these desires out in a horrifically literal sense, Hitchcock’s classic presents the matriarch herself as a corpse representing the suppression of his sexual desires.

Release History

This didn’t get a UK release until ten years after its international release, a case of bad timing perhaps as films were being seized, banned, censored and generally stripped of their dignity left, right and centre. A pre-cut version that was missing some five minutes, some of it dialogue but much of it gore, was passed uncut by the BBFC for the VPD VHS release in 1989. This passed well under the radar and wasn’t a particular success, deleted fairly quickly.

88 Films picked it up in 2016 and ran their Indiegogo campaign to get this film restored in a 2k scan along with ‘Absurd’, ‘Aenigma’ and ‘Massacre in Dinosaur Valley’, looking at £40,000 to remaster all four films. They managed upwards of £80,000 which resulted in a fifth film, ‘Absurd’s prequel ‘Anthropophagous’, as well as supplemental material for all five films being delivered as part of the campaign. The film was released completely uncut (the version that was delivered to my door last week) and for that kind of dedication we should all be very grateful.

Cultural Impact

Other than its reputation as an extreme piece of euro-sleaze it passed by relatively unnoticed at a time when these types of film were ten a penny, however it's garnered quite a reputation over the years amongst hardened gorehounds. It’s only now in the UK, that we’re getting a chance to appraise the film and see it for what it is. Yes, at its devoured heart it’s a sleazy piece of exploitation cinema but scratch the surface and it’s much more than that…an example of a superior director putting his inimitable stamp on the genre at a time when the floodgates were open with an ‘anything goes’ attitude.

Final Thoughts

Perhaps a little strong for your casual horror fan, for me it lived up to its reputation which is rare for a film that is well into its fourth decade. It’s a strong entry in D’Amato’s back catalogue and its fantastic that we’re finally getting the chance to see it. If you live in the UK and weren’t part of the Indiegogo campaign then it’s definitely worth the money, you won’t be disappointed.

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Anthropophagous’, ‘New York Ripper’, ‘Absurd’.