Devil Seed

Devil Seed

Directed by: Greg A.  Sager

Canada, 2012

Horror, 108min

I’m not much of a fan of possessed chick films, as they often tend to become way too silly, or perhaps it would be better to say that they lack in presenting a believable shift from an ordinary to an unordinary world. I unfortunately find it to be a lazy genre, which stays overtly close to convention and rarely ventures out of the box. As most sub-genres and flavour of the week niches, the outlet is of varied quality, with some highlights, and some low marks, but personally I find the sub-genre predominantly stale. Devil Seed may not be all that original; although it does have some good moments that make it somewhat stand out amongst the rest of the clutter.

Without messing around the movie plays straight into the classic demonic / Satan possession film traits  – young prudish woman becomes a vessel for evil forces following an intoxicated visit to a gypsy tarot reader – who they drunkenly insult. Evils forces are unleashed visualized through nightmare rock-video aesthetics…something that oddly never reoccurs – and then her world starts to crumble as the demons successively take over her body… Somebody call a priest and save her soul!

It all starts with a tone setting imagery of priest and writhing woman cursing her way thorough an exorcism, as the credits blast by, before plunging into generic geekery as college student Alex [Michelle Argyris] returns back to her new apartment that she’s to share with friends Jessica [Shantelle Canzanese] and Breanne [Vanessa Broze].  The first generic nudity is on display within the first five minutes, Alex boyfriend  Brian [Kevin Jake Walker] makes an appearance and all seems hunky-dory…classic turf; now just wait for the scares to start hammering down.

But despair not; this generic tomfoolery is what establishes characters, the complexity in the structure of the constellation of friends’… hostility, relations, and infidelity. You learn a lot more about this bunch in these first five minutes than the average horror movie, and I really like the way director / writer, Greg A. Sager, establishes those we need to root for and those we can see as cannon fodder early on in the piece. Not forgetting that the dirty little secret we are in on really gives an interesting intrigue to all the scenes with the affected parts from that moment on.

Classic stuff like over acting… strange scratches on the thighs… weird symbols in her schoolbooks… creepy visions… am I loosing my mind questions… doors that creak in the dark… foul language, and silly overdubbed possessed voices… and in all honesty it get’s kind of annoying. Apart from alienating me with some at times really poor acting, what I find Devil Seed doing, is provoking me with some weak ass moments, then taking these moments and leading them to great ones. A really sappy research scene lands in images of Annelise Michel pre and post supposed possession by no less than six demons… and who the movies Annelise Michel: The Exorcist Tapes 2011, The Exorcism of Emily Rose 2005, and the superior Requiem 2006. I take this as sign of Sager doing his research correct and knowing what path to take in this journey.

Let’s shift focus. The pros of this film are the jump scares. Phew; I don’t know when demonic possession flick jump scares where as intense as this. When Sager starts off one classic jump scare moment, he just keeps pushing on, and frequently nails more jump scares into the same scene. Kind of like multi layered scare, which just keep kicking. A Chinese cracker of intense jump scares. It’s really effective and as there’s no tension release, only blam, blam, blam, it definitely winds the audience up.  At the end of the day this is a vital reason for why we seek out horror related movies, we want to be scared, and Devil Seed really hammers the frights down solid.

There’s some good storytelling and audience manipulation in setting up the Alex character and guiding the audience into feeling empathetic towards her. By letting the audience in on the deceit of her boyfriend, there’s an emotional recognition  - from the times we have felt deceived or let down by a love one – between the audience and Alex. This is a good way to help the audience feel more for the otherwise pretty shallow character, oh and to show that’ she’s still a virgin without actually having that awkward dialogue. Instead we have Breanne  in post coital pillow talk ask why Brian doesn’t just leave “that little virgin Alex”. He tries to hold some façade but this comes crushing to the ground when the demon pushes him away as he’s trying to get into Alex pants… Instead of accepting the incident as proof of Alex possession, he takes it as a major cock-block and abandons her there and then. As said, her allies are leaving her one by one… and the audience become more and more empathetic to this poor girl with her solid values, who after turning down her boyfriend in a gentle manner is raped by the devil, again.

Oh, and if I where a filmmaker making a flick about the devil raping some top-notch hottie – which he always does, the devil has great taste in women - I’d at least make sure that her pants get torn off.  Unlike the possessed lesbian act between Alex and Jessie - brief but it’s there, the demonic rape is nodded at but sort of kept off-camera. Let’s just say that The Entity 1982 came to mind, but with the clothes still on. Luckily there are some great special effects courtesy of Anthony Veilleux, who’s been part of crew’s on some pretty damned good movies. Veilleux definitely knows his stuff and the cuts, scars, burns and air gropes really get the job done.

There’s a small Subplot with the parent, Father Madison [Micheal G. Wilmot] and son [Wayne Conroy] who have grown apart, which never really develops into anything else than dialogue. Madison is the priest from the opening montage, and he’s been down this road before, even if he’s reluctant to perform one last Exorcism. His backstory connects in to the introduction montage – as the demon recognizes, and taunts Father Madison in a way that indicates that they know each other.  Surprisingly, in all it’s convention, this last act is what becomes something of a booster for the movie, as it really picks up here and I find myself liking the movie more and more for ever minute. If only Sager had worked Father Madison into the plot earlier and built that character arc more, he could have come out with a tale of one man loosing his faith, serving time in prison, living a life of remorse only to come back out of hiding for one last round, re connecting with his faith and redeem himself. But that’s a completely different story, and at by the end of the movie, Devil Seed actually manages to take genre convention and warp it somewhat, by partially pushing the accustomed traits into places I’ve not seen it go before!

I predict Devil Seed sands a risk of being lost amongst the clutter of similar flicks, as it really doesn’t bring all that much innovation with it, until that last act goodness. Hopefully this piece doesn’t scare you off, but instead evokes some interest as Devil Seed has a couple of good tricks up it’s sleeve, and impressive, intense, nerve wrecking jump scares, that might make you pee your pants. Grab your girlfriend (or boyfriend), check out the movie and enjoy some classic generic demonic possession before your date becomes a portal to the end of the mankind.

Devil Seed is set to be released by NjutaFilms later this year.

Burn Witch, Burn

Burn Witch, Burn

Original Title: Night of the Eagle

Directed by: Sidney Hayers

UK, 1962Horror/ Occult, 90min.

Distributed by: MGM MoD.

There’s something about old English movies with occult themes that make me think of my late grandmother. She was a true, believing Catholic who went to church on any given occasion and she used to read Dennis Wheatly pulp novels. I find it to be no coincidence that she read Wheatley novels as he frequently dabbled with occult and satanic themed stories. Needless to say, these were stories where good won over evil – which is most likely one reason why she read them. I’m quite sure that she rarely watched movies that used the same good fighting evil with occult themes, but I’m sure she would have got the same thrill from them if she had seen one.

Which brings me to Burn Witch, Burn, a good old fashioned English horror movie that almost naïvely tells it’s story of good vs. evil, deception amongst friends, and how mankind once again is forced to open their eyes to a wider picture.

Burn Witch, Burn starts with a warning of an black magic read over a black screen… a warning of tampering with evil… and then a delightful chanting as the narrator dispels the evil powers that may spill forth from the movie about to start. This goes on for almost three minutes before the movie actually starts going. It’s an effective opening, and definitely something you never would see in today’s genre cinema. Today it’s all about wham bam thank you monster man, and, get the adrenaline pumping.

Scottish director, Sidney Hayers, also directed the somewhat classic Circus of Horrors 1960, and had a lengthy career as director of TV serials such as The Avengers, The Professionals, Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five and later Knightrider where Paul Frees supplied the voice of supercar Kitt… this is of course only interesting as Paul Frees also read the narrative introduction to Hayers Burn Witch, Burn decades earlier.

The Quick fix for this movie is that it tells the tale of Peter Wyngarde [Norman Taylor], a university professor who one night after the customary game of bridge with his colleague Lindsay Carr [Colin Gordon] and wife Flora [Margret Johnston] has the shocking revelation – after a lengthy snooping around his wife’s unmentionables drawers – that his wife Tansy [Janet Blair] is Witch, seriously into Black Magic.Being the man of logic and science that he is, he has her throw all her artefacts on the fire, even the small photograph that she has of him in her locket…Yeah, you guessed it, the next day accidents start to happen around him, a female student who previously loved him, accuses him of violating her, his life is threatened, Tansy falls into some odd trancelike state – and back again.Slowly but surely dark forces close in on Norman, and pretty soon he finds himself face to face with the sinister forces he initially proclaimed don’t exist. And he’s had more of a change in character than you’ll find in a lot of today’s genre movies.

Burn Witch, Burn is more of a drama with occult themes, than a straight forward horror flick, which in all honesty is how genre films where in the sixties, early Hammer Horror, and Psycho, 1960, shifted the way these movies where made, Amicus where just getting started and it took a few years for the penny to drop all the way and horror return to the screen as the man theme in the narratives.But the framework is there, an opening in the ordinary world. Establishing shit, and what life there is like. Bridge nights, colleagues, the family unit and their relations to each other and their friends… The shift in balance as Norman’s world starts to change, and he has to move from unbeliever to believer.

Norman the Sceptic! One of the most effective tricks in horror film. Have someone be completely the opposite of what the story will be and gently shake this person into believing. “ I Do Not Believe!” are the first words spoken in the movie and very much the anti thesis of where Norman will be when the movie ends. It makes the unnatural horror of the movie more acceptable for the audience as we naturally identify with the non-believing character. We too know there’s no such thing as black magic and can easily identify with Norman… or do we? This is how you gently move an audience into the world of horror unleashed, because if he has to believe, so do we. And despite the somewhat shoddy Deus Ex Machina ending, the movie does serve justice and end with the question Do YOU believe? most likely propelling uncomfortable questions into the heads of patrons to ponder as they left the cinemas back in 1962.

Being based on a short story by Fritz Lieber Jr. – Conjure Wife, which had been adapted previously as the Lon Chaney Jr. vehicle Weird Woman 1944, an episode of Moment of Fear 1960, this one, the comedic approach as Witches’ Brew 1980 and it’s rumoured that an adaptation is in development now with a 2012 release planned – although Burn Witch, Burn is the one to stand out as it has a screenplay co-written by the legendary Richard Matheson.

Burn Witch, Burn is an enjoyable movie, overall good performances, and a satisfying plot. I have had the movie poster in my possession for a very long time – a poster which obviously is far more tantalizing and suggestive than the movie - but I bought it in a spontaneous moment thinking that it was a movie version of A. Merrill’s fantastic pulp fiction horror Burn Witch, Burn. Obviously it isn’t an adaptation of that story, but still a decent, entertaining piece that just goes to show that special effects – even though this one does have an eagle attack effect where wires are painfully visible – are not everything and just how far a little really can go.

Image:

16x9 aspect Ratio.

Audio:

Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, English dialogue, no subtitles.

Extras:

Theatrical trailer.

Here's a few minutes of Janet Blair in action for your entertainment...

The Sentinel

The Sentinel
Directed by: Michael Winner
USA 1977
Horror, 92min
Distributed by:

Wow. Sometimes you really do stumble upon “lost” masterworks and Michael Winner’s The Sentinel is just such a movie. I was watching Jurassic Park: Lost Word with my oldest son a few nights back and reacted to what a pale, unanimated and completely dead performance Jeff Goldblum gave in that movie. I decided to check out one of his older flicks as I think he’s brilliant in early stuff like Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978, and Cronenberg’s The Fly 1986 (obviously not forgetting his very early small part in Winner’s Death Wish 1974). The Sentinel boasts Goldblum and Christopher Walken as the main names on the DVD cover art so that became the logic choice for the night… but those two guys, despite giving decent performances, are only seen in small supporting parts and instead The Sentinel turned out to be a real gem of modern horror story which really surprised me and undoubtedly has become one of my new favourite genre flicks.

Photo model Alison Parker [Cristina Raines] expresses a desire to live in an own apartment instead of moving in with lawyer boyfriend Michael Lerman [Chris Sarandon]. He’s not too happy about her decision, but following her father’s death he goes along with the split living arrangements. Alison’s neighbours turn out to be a real collection of eccentrics where Mr. Chazen [Burgess Meredith] throws a party for his cat Jezebel something dark is awoken in her. She has terrifying nightmares, which break into reality when the swinging chandelier and creaking floorboards from upstairs keeps her from sleeping. Slowly she starts to believe that she’s loosing her mind and perhaps that is the case when none of the strange neighbours she’s been interacting with for the past days actually live in the house… the only two who live there are Alison and a reclusive priest who’s sole purpose in life is to guard the gates of hell.


Michael Winner! What a brilliant writer and director he is. Not only did he direct one of the most badass vigilante revenge flicks of all time Death Wish, but he also directed this fantastic little horror flick. It has a great cast, and a ridiculous amount of actors that at one time had been major names such as: Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, José Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Martin Balsam, and the legendary John Carradine to name a few. Then there’s a bunch of actors who where just on the brink of breaking though such as Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken, Beverly D’Angelo, Jerry Orbach, Tom Berenger, and supposedly Richard Dreyfus has a cameo in an outdoor scene. It’s a movie that would make for a great drinking game, just pop a shot each time you see a familiar face.

As all great horror flicks that dabble with Satan, possession, gateways to hell etc., you have to have religion in there as an opponent or accomplice – Check out Manuel Carballo’s Exorcismus 2010 for a great use of how religion can be used as an accomplice to the evil that unfolds. That’s a twist I haven’t seen to many times.

What really stands out is that The Sentinel is a top-notch pulpy horror flick, which plays by all the right rules. It’s really no different than that one they all are judged by, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist 1973.

The flick starts with an initial attack. Not a classic one with a monster, but a “disturbance in the force” if you will and Monsignor Franchino [Arthur Kennedy – who get’s a lot more to do here than he did in Alberto DeMartino’s L’Antichristo (The Antichrist) 1974.] is sent out into the ordinary world. This is where the opening montage shows us several different clips of Alison and Michael. At her work as a model, and also where Jeff Goldblum is seen as her photographer, as they take romantic walks together, as they look through her portfolio, as they look for flats, she for her own, he for a one to share with her…this establishes the ordinary world which they live in. The world about to be disrupted.

Then the shift in balance, all told in a majestic way in which you rarely see exposition be delivered today. This happy go lucky woman who appears to have everything proves to have a dark secret. When returning to her childhood home after her father has passed away, she has a flashback of a traumatizing moment in her youth. When she walks in on her father being unfaithful with two different women, Alison runs to the bathroom and slits her wrists in an attempt to take her life…

That suicide, and others referred to though out the narrative, are all part of the key to the movie. This is like Exorcist, all about loss of faith, and what happens on the way back to finding it. Suicide is as you know the ultimate sin in the eyes of the church, and guilt can drive people to anything. Nothing is as powerful or useful in a horror flick of this kind as Catholic Guilt. This is what Monsignor Franchino latches onto when he meets a terrified Allison suffering from posttraumatic nightmares and an imagined death! Yes there’s a stunningly effective sequence right before midpoint where Alison’s nightmares see her killing a spectre – or was it a spectre, did she in fact kill someone? The guilt of that act, her adultery – again backstory exposition delivered brilliantly – and her many suicide attempts drive her right back into the arms of the church… which is exactly what Monsignor Franchino plan, and mission from that opening sequence has been all about. Monsignor Franchino even says it to Alison clearly in dialogue just before the third act starts that she’s lost her way and the guilt that breeds suspicions and deceptions will vanish when she makes peace and embraces Christ… It will make perfect sense once you see this magnificent movie.

I completely love how the movie slowly creeps from the normal to a world completely off kilter as the demons and Old Nick start to move in – and that’s without mentioning that really unsettling Beverly D’Angelo masturbation scene which will freak you out no matter what – It’s a great gentle shift in balance as we start to move into the supernatural world. The transition moves smoothly and working its way from the ordinary world to the supernatural in this slow fashion helps sell the illusion to the audience.

The supernatural plot takes something of a second seat to the investigation plot, or perhaps I should call it an investigation Sub-plot where detective Detective Gatz [Eli Wallach] and Rizzo [Christopher Walken] go after Lerman with the suspicion that he might be behind Alison’s state. Its though this investigation subplot that’s brilliantly used to lay out exposition, as every time the detectives are on screen, they tell us of something of importance, either to clearly or to dig into someone’s’ backstory and that helps explains certain parts of the narrative.

And you never make a movie like this without filling the piece with religious metaphors, sinister twists and red herrings. The theory I had in mind was way off and surprisingly I fell for the oldest trick in the book when Winner started laying out false leads for me to pick up.

The last fifteen minutes when all is revealed and the sub-plots come to culmination are outstanding. The visions of hell are outstanding and a true delight of outlandish cinema. Winner used actual disfigured people in these scenes, which led to both him and the production receiving some harsh critique. But it was the right way to go, because the real freaks add an authenticity to the piece, and together with the climactic special effects – created by the legendary Dick Smith, who also created Regan’s transformation make-up in that other movie, and Albert Whitlock’s visual effects – come together for an unforgettable climax to an unforgettable movie that I’m ecstatic to have seen.

Produced, directed, screenplay written (based on Jeffrey Konvitz’s novel) and edited by Winner himself, The Sentinel is a movie you want to seek out right away if you like good old school horror with brilliant twists and an atmosphere that is right up there with the cream of the crop.


Image:
16x9 Widescreen

Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, English dialogue, no subtitles:

Extras:
A really entertaining commentary track with Winner, the original trailer, biographies and a photo gallery.

The Antichrist

The Antichrist

Original Title: L’antichristo

Directed by: Alberto De Martino

Italy, 1974

Horror/Satan/Occult, 112 min

Distributed by: Optimum Releasing.

As far as satanic possession movies go there’s not too many of them tach come off as anything else than cheesy Exorcist rip offs. These past weeks I’ve seen several variants on the old possessed teenage chick story, and it’s fair to say that the most of them all fall into the same pitfalls and needless to say they all have the same familiar traits that we know all to well.

Current stuff like Manuel Carballo’s La posesión de Emma Evans (Exorcismus) 2010, Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism 2010 or even Paco & Balaugeró’s [Rec]2 2009, all play by the book, and you know before the last act rolls through you will have seen bile, rolling eye whites, foul language snarled out by the possessed and in the most cases levitation. Needless to say these movies look fantastic, a lot has happened since William Friedkin unleashed his 1973 milestone movie based on Peter Blatty’s novel of the same name. But I still hold a naïve fascination for those movies released much nearer to that landmark of genre cinema, the stuff so painfully trying to cash in on the success of The Exorcist. I’m obviously talking about movies like Mario Bava’s Lisa e il diavolo (Lisa & The Devil) 1974 - also recut with alternate material to assimilate Fridekin’s movie under the name House of Exorcism, Amando De Ossorio’s La endemoniada (The Possessed) 1975 and Alberto de Martino’s L’antichristo (The Antichrist) 1974 to name a few.

Those movies, despite how they did at the box-office back then, have become somewhat cult classics by today’s standards. Back then they where painfully trying to get in on the action, and being so close to that original flick, I feel that they where lost at the time. Today it’s movies like these that I can appreciate as they tried to pull stuff off on minimal budgets and to some extent succeeded in mimicking the sensationalism of the original.

Since a terrible accident in her childhood Ippolita Oderisi [Carla Gravina] has been paralyzed from waist down. Her religious father Massimo [Mel Ferrer] is supportive and takes her on pilgrimages to various sacred places and statues of saints in hope of some miracle cure. Even Bishop Ascanio Oderisi [Arthur Kennedy] is concerned and holds masses to pray for Ippolita. Although when Ippolita’s brother Fillipo [Remo Girone] turns up at a party with his mate Marcello Sinibaldi [Umberto Orsini] desperately trying to match the two together, Ippolita pretty soon realises that Sinibaldi is a psychiatrist with a hidden agenda.

Convinced that Ippolita’s handicap is rooted in her background, perhaps in a former life way before that childhood accident, Dr. Sinibaldi persuades Ippolita to undergo some regression therapy hypnosis. That’s when the trouble starts. In her previous life Ippolita was a witch, also playing dual roles with a spiffy longhaired blonde wig, and this witch was burned at the stake for being in league with Satan. Obviously this demonic force takes a grip of Ippolita and pretty soon she can’t tell the awoken past life persona from the real Ippolita. Which is a great thing for us as this gives De Martino and his cinematographer Aristide Massaccesi – yes old loveable Joe D’Amato – an opportunity to mess around with back projection, mate screens and creating some pretty neat levitation, transformation and freaky special effect moments including a couple of really impressive imploding mirrors and television screens along the way.

Like any movie in the demonic possession realm Ippolita vomits bile, she spreads her legs and taunts everyone around her with her sexuality, makes sideboards and cupboards levitate around the room and decomposes with each day that goes until there’s only the demon present and almost no Ippolita at all. Finally the moment we have been awaiting is upon us, Massimo's brother, Bishop Oderisi, arrives to take on the age old nemesis of the church and the final battle commences… or wait it doesn’t because this movie holds yet another surprise for it’s audience.

In film theory some studies latch frantically onto what’s known as the image system, it’s at times so farfetched that it becomes almost more parody than anything else. One of my favourite passages in all the writings Russian filmmaker Andrej Tarkovsky left behind is when he discusses the reoccurrence of horses, apples and billowing fields in his work. After years of film students and academics trying to force their theories and interpretations of his “image system” Tarkovsky himself wrote that he simply liked the look of horses, apples and billowing fields. That’s fucking brilliant and such a smack in the face of over analytical bullshit. Which also is one of the reasons I write the crap I write on here, there’s no need to sneer at alternative low budget cinema, as it’s filled to the brim of the same symbolism, traits, storytelling and image systems that the acknowledged filmmakers and art house posers have been using for all time.

Getting back on track, it’s fair to say that the image system of The Antichrist has to be toads. Toads figure in several occasions throughout the movie and these toads are obviously associated with negative values, evil magical beasts and demonic creatures. The reason for this is of course the metaphoric value that they hold, the transformation from tadpole to full grown toad represents the resurrection, the rebirth. Much like the rebirth of the demon in The Antichrist. Then there’s the symbol value of strong feminine energy, clearly the energy of the female demon. It’s also a key part of the antichrist communion, where the torn off head of the toad serves as the body of Satan!

This is a great little movie. It’s entertaining as hell and takes several sudden turns. It has a lot going for it with the back-story that slowly lets out more information as it goes along. For a while I was sure that the Mel Ferrer relationship with Swedish starlet Anita Strindberg would be milked and become a sinister back-story where Ferrer had cheated on his wife with Strindberg before that terrible accident hence being projected guilt that had paralyzed Ippolita. There’s a small indication of oedipal jealousy in there, but nothing that really pays off apart from a few lines of possessed blasphemy and raunchy talk concerning her father and future wife’s sexual appetites. But it never goes for the guilt trip in that classic way. Instead the entire back-story arc is dedicated to the witch trial and execution. A parallel story that’s also reflected in the main narrative, such as the last minute redemption that turns former life witch Ippolita into the saint she visits at during the opening sequence. This opening sequence is mirrored in more than one-way during the movie’s climax, but you’ll just have to check it out to see in what way.

I find that Alberto De Martino’s script, co-written with Vincenzo Mannino and Gianfrano Clerici is satisfying as it uses what we've seen and brings something new with it - a very salty italian twist just the way we want it. This approach is nothing new for Mannino – writer of several character driven Poliziotteschi about Police Inspector Betti, commonly portrayed by Maurizio Merli and epic adventures also “in the familiar style of others” like Enzo G. Castellari’s L’ultimo squalo (Great White) 1981 or Ruggero Deodato’s I predatori di Atlantide (The Raiders of Atlantis) 1982, has been down that path on more than one occasion. But perhaps it mostly the movies he worked as co-writer on, stuff like Deodato’s La casa sperduta nel parco (House on the Edge of the Park) 1980, Lucio Fulci’s Lo squartatore di New York (The New York Ripper) 1982 and Murder-Rock: uccide a passo di danza (Murder-Rock: Dancing Death) 1984 that he’s most known for. Movies he primarily co-wrote with Gianfranco Clerici. Regular readers will know that I have something of a fetish for movies based on Clerici’s scripts, as I feel he very much indeed did write/work on some of the finest genre movies to ever come out of Italy.

Every demonic possession movie demands a grand entrance of Old Nick himself, and at least one moment that leaves it’s mark on the audience. The Black Mass where past life Ippolita engages in a satanic orgy is fantastic. I won’t spoil it for you but there’s a goat scene – which isn’t graphic at all, but fantastically suggestive and really brilliantly edited by Vincenzo Tomassi, who you recall edited all those Lucio Fulci movies. Tomassi brings a great flow to The Antichrist and it rarely feels as if it’s loosing pace, and there’s several brilliant juxtapositions you really need to see if you are into suggestive editing – and fucking amazing movies. Apart from the goat incident, there’s a hilarious moment where Ippolita flashes her lady parts to Bishop Oderisi, and his reaction is priceless, and just one of several splendid moments in The Antichrist.

I’ve hade the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai lying around for years, and it’s finally been a treat to actually put some images to the mental ones those tracks have been conjuring all these years. Needless to say the music is tremendously fitting when you have images to go with it.

Something I find intriguing about The Antichrist is the way De Martino uses, or rather not doesn't use his cast. There are some pretty damned good genre names in there, but none of them really get a moment to shine. Instead the whole movie does belong to Gravina who gives a grand performance in the lead. But it still feels kind of sore not to use the cast more than De Martino has. Mel Ferrer is about as interesting as drying paint, Strindberg more or less disappears from the flick after she once briefly get’s her kit off (next to an obviously bothered Ferrer who has to snog her next), the iconic Alida Valli is merely there for two small sequences and Kennedy, well he does his five minute bit and then fucks off. It’s odd and primarily saved by Gravinas dedicated performance.

As a little bonus for you if you want to get über-geeky, look out for bit part actor Ernesto Colli as the possessed man, he’s part of the mirror imagery I was talking about earlier, he's one of those faces you always remember and recognise in the large amount of movies he had bits in. And keep your eyes open when Filippo walks into the party after the opening segment. That blonde on his arm is another Scandinavian actress, this time none other than Ulla Johannsen! Doesn’t ring a bell? Well perhaps you remember her better as the naked chick with the machinegun in Enzo G. Castellari’s Ouei maledetto treno blindato (The Inglorious Bastards) 1978. There's iconic imagery if there every was iconic imagery!

Alberto De Martino followed The Antichrist with the Poliziotteschi Una Magnum Special per Tony Saitta (Blazing Magnum) 1976, held by many as one of the finest entries into that genre. It’s comes as no surprise to see that Clerici and Mannino wrote the script. Only three years later De Martino ventured back into satanic territory with Holocaust 2000, which wasn’t only a take on Richard Donner’s 1976 hit The Omen, but also sports a great performance from Spartacus himself, Mr. Kirk Douglas.

Image:

1.85:1 Colour.

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono, 2.0 English dialogue.

Extras:

None.

The Other Hell

The Other Hell
Original Title: L’altro inferno
Directed by: Bruno Mattei
Italy, 1981
Horror/Mystery, 88Min
Distributed by: Shriek Show

I’ve really not seen enough Bruno Mattei movies in my time and wish I'd get round to seeing more. But for some reason it’s only a handful of eighties flicks that I keep returning to over the years. It’s hard not to enjoy a movie like Virus - L'inferno dei morte viventi (Hell of the Living Dead) 1981, or Rats - Notte di terrore (Rats - Night of Terror) 1984. There’s a mesmerising eighties Italian low budget charm to those movies that I simply can’t resist. Trashy, dodgy and kind of corny, but that’s just the way I like them, and especially the ones penned by Mattei and long time collaborator Claudio Fragasso, because you know you are in for a treat when those two got together. Using one of his many pseudonyms, this time Stephen Oblowsky, Mattei serves up a rather intriguing, movie set in a nunnery starring Franca Stoppi, Carlo De Mejo and a score by progressive rockers Goblin.

Opening with a rather strange montage of a nun wandering the dark corridors of the catacombs searching for Sister Assunta, The Other Hell, establishing not only sister Assunta [Paola Montenero] but also Mother Vincenza [Franca Stoppi] and Boris, the gardener [Franco Garofalo – who you may recall from Mattei’s Hell of the Living Dead where he gave a show stopping performance as the psychotic Zantoro], both important characters, as we will see later. Then it gets into setting up the theme of the flick, when Sister Assunta conducts a savage autopsy and violently defiles the corpse of a dead nun whilst claiming that the genitals are the door to evil. After the glowing red eyes of a demon mesmerize Assunta, she goes insane and stabs her assistant to death! Father Inardo [Andrea Aureli] arrives to investigate the strange string of murders and deaths that have plagued the nunnery, and obviously peculiar shit starts to happen all staying true to demonic activity formula. Bibles burst into fire, lights explode and owls fly in slow motion – giving Mattei an opportunity to use some stock footage. Moments later an unfortunate sister is possessed and bleeds to death from her stigmata whist Father Inardo preaches the love of the lord.

Then the investigation plot takes off, and investigation plot with a dash of Nunsplotiation horror elements. Father Valerio [Carlo De Mejo], an obvious sceptic to demonic possession and believes strong in science. A fascinating conflict of interests for a priest to have and stuff that gives splendid dimension to Father Valerio. And it makes for a fascinating conflict between Father Valerio and Mother Vincenza when he arrives at the nunnery so see that she is profoundly convinced that the Devil is behind the all the deaths, whilst he is convinced they are murders.

The Other Hell is something of an odd little movie. A mystery murder piece with horror traits at the core – I’m a bit hesitant to actually call it a Nunsplotiation flick, because there’s practically no nudity or any sexual romps with Satan on screen at any time, and nothing ever really feels exploitative in any way. Which may seem somewhat strange considering the movies that Mattei made in the sexploitation field and the assemblies of stuff like Jess Franco’s 99 Women 1969 that he over saw. Although Mattei has said that he wasn’t interested in making that kind of movie with The Other Hell, but a straightforward mystery horror, which he also continued to claim enjoying the best.

There’s also an apparent influence of Dario Argento’s Suspiria 1977 and Inferno 1980 especially if you take a look at how the movie looks in it’s lighting and certain camera angles. There’s a lot of heavy lighting with reds, blues and greens and a lot of cheap laboratory/alchemy props in the foreground of many shots. Those movies have undoubtedly been an influence. And that may be a good thing as the movie is very entertaining and never really get’s too far out, and god knows there’s been some far out silly imitators of those two movies in their time. Instead it stays close to the mystic investigation plot and there are some really impressive scenes – like a full burning body suit, the strange masked woman in the attic, and the shocking reveal at the end.

The mystery at the core of the story is an interesting one and does have a decent surprise to it when it all comes to the surface. The mystery of the masked woman is revealed and the reason for the murders in the convent is understandable. They are motivated by a terrible act in the past – and that back-story is one of the best things with The Other Hell, I won’t bust it for you here, just in case you haven’t seen The Other Hell. But it’s a brilliant beat, because when you think about it its just mind blowing – especially if you take into mind the “horrific” opening and what Sister Assunta proposes there. In her opinion, children are the fruit of Satan and should be aborted before the womb is torn out!

Although The Other Hell at times is very tedious with a fair amount of filler scenes – just how many times can nuns run up and down staircases – but it’s still deep with atmosphere and does actually have one of the best stories and final twists penned by Fragasso. An ending that stays true to the usual downbeat climaxes I find seem to conclude the handful of Mattei/Fragasso movies that I’ve seen.

Carlo De Mejo is fantastic in The Other Hell; he feels as if he’s just walked right off Fulci’s City of the Living Dead 1980, into this one with a quick stop at wardrobe. And Franca Stoppi, although nowhere as outlandish as she is in Joe D’Amato’s Buio Omega 1979 makes a fabulous mother superior with a dark past and haunting secrets behind that stern façade.

The Goblin score doesn’t really do much for the movie. Once again it’s a reusing of previous tracks, this time mostly lifted from D’Amato’s Buio Omega, much like on Hell of the Living Dead. For editor Liliana Serra, who had previously worked on several Alfonso Brescia movies and was an assistant editor on a couple or Mario Bava flicks, The Other Hell was her final movie.

All in all, The Other Hell is a decent Mattei/Fragasso vehicle that entertains, entices and almost hits the most of the right spots. Don’t go there if you want randy nuns drinking she communion wine and having it off with old Nick, but if you want a lighter take on something like mix of Argento’s Suspiria, Inferno and say Norman Jewison’s Agnes of God 1985, then this is the ticket for you! It's gradually becoming a personal favourite of mine through the years.

Image:

1.85:1 Aspect Ratio

Audio:

Dolby Digital 2.0, English Dialogue, no subtitles.

Extras:

Interviews with the late Bruno Mattei and Carlo De Mejo. Trailers for other Shreik Show releases.

Nude for Satan

Nude for Satan
Original Title: Nuda per Satana
Directed by: Luigi Batzella
Italy, 1974
Occult / Sexploitatiom, 90min
Distributed by: Njuta Films


Dr Benson [Stelio Candelli] on his way to an emergency call to the Whitmore house get’s himself lost and instead comes upon a “crashed” car. Being the good doctor that he is, he stops, gets out and finds Susan [Rita Caleroni] amongst the wreck. Promising to return with help he takes off to the large mysterious castle he previously asked directions at. Roaming around the eerie mansion he comes across a woman who looks just like Susan, and she insists on calling him Peter. Peter, who she claims to have been waiting for, for so long… Somewhile later Susan arrives at the castle too only to meet a man who looks just like Benson. With them both in the castle and a sinister strange man, [James Harris], taunting and luring them on, a surreal erotic nightmare starts to unravel as the Benson and Susan wander the dark corridors in search for each other.

Luigi Batzella, native Sardinian and man of many pseudonyms, Nude for Satan as Paolo Solvay, may not have been a great filmmaker, but he certainly made movies that leave an impression. No matter which genre he tried his hands at, he came out making some trashy pieces of low budget sleazy exploitation cinema. With a mere fifteen movies as director and several more starring in minor acting parts, Batazella left a decent legacy of tainted and perverted movies, which more than often brought a heavy dose of sexploitation to the subgenre he was tinkering with.

Perhaps best remembered for his string of Nazisploitation flicks; Kaput lager – gli ultimo giorni delle SS (Achtung – the Desert Tigers) and La bestia in calore (The Beast in Heat) both 1977 it should be noted that Batzella directed movies in the customary Italian Director for hire spheres. Spaghetti Westerns, War flicks, Action adventures, the Nazisplotation flicks and he also co-directed Bruce Le’s Challenge of the Tiger (aka For Your Height Only) 1980. Many of Batzella’s movies saw him working with American B-movie actors Gordon Mitchell and Richard Harrison who found new fame in Italian low budget fares, and Batzella wasn’t directing genre names, he was stood amongst them in the many movies he held smaller acting parts in.

But the movies that possibly are amongst his best, the occult sexploitation pieces Il plenilunio delle vergini (The Devils Wedding Night) 1973 starring amongst others Mark Damon and Rosalba Neri and Nuda per Satana (Nude for Satan) 1974 with Rita Calderoni starring against Stelio Candelli who has some great movies on his resume. Both these films deal with the witchcraft and the devil having it off with some scantily clad lads and lasses and are quite heavy on the old satanic orgy material. Atmospheric pieces that certainly will have any one keen to Satanism, nudity and the corruption of mankind happy. Obviously exorcised by censors throughout the years, it’s quite entertaining to see Nude for Satan restored to it’s full gritty sleazy glory, complete with lesbian romps, satanic shagging and triple-X inserts, even if it is quite dully assembled at times, but I’ll get back to that.

There’s often a lot of flack given to the directors working within the low budget sphere. If it’s not the shabby camerawork or bogus sets, it’s poor plots, bad acting and the recycled footage that frequently returns in their movies. But in all honesty this should be praised instead of criticized, because this is a solid testament to how dedicated these guys where to completing their movies and giving them that little extra fluff. Instead of skipping an establishing shot or a mood image, they simply dug into their archives and pulled out some previous used stock footage and they had the shot they needed. Most likely staying within budget too. It’s much like Bruno Mattei’s stock footage in Hell of the Living Dead or Jess Franco’s constant zooming in his Artur Brauner produced movies during the early seventies, the quick fixes became trademarks and also allow the director to complete the movie within it’s own limitations.

Anyways, returning to Nude for Satan… What a bloody great title that is - it leaves nothing to the imagination, and it's precisely what this movie delivers, nudity and satanic orgies. Yeah it’s cheap and dirty, but it’s pretty entertaining too. It’s no understatement that Nude for Satan is amongst Batzella’s finest movies. Story-wise it’s an interesting piece as there’s a kind of art house narrative going on, where the house acts as some kind of parallel universe run by the Devil [James Harris]. Well inside the house, Dr Benson and Susan separately meet their doppelgangers Peter and Evelyn, seeing both Calderoni and Candelli in dual roles as they try to figure out what happened to each other. Benson wants to reunite with Susan instead of the doppelganger Evelyn and vice versa. At the same time there’s sort of a tragic ghost story going on where the Peter and Evelyn characters long to be reunited. It certainly is trippy, dreamlike and at times, in comprehensive, but that all makes sense at the end of the movie. After confronting the Devil, the screen dips to black, Dr Benson get’s out of his car, located at the spot he slammed his brakes on in the opening, and runs to the aid of the young woman in the crashed car at the side of the road… Susan, but this time holding the medallions from her dream. Yes folks, it’s all been a frightening, surreal erotic nightmare taking place in their heads… or has it? Well whatever Batzelli intended, the ending is kind of a question mark, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have wanted it to end in any other way. How boring would it have been if Benson saved Susan and beat the devil! Instead there’s a window into a world where Satan has corrupted innocence, as Susan obviously didn’t want anything to do with the saucy Satanism until that orgasmic finale complete with laughing Satan, naked dancers and a depraved Paul snogging Susan into eternal damnation.

Batzelli also edited the most of his movies himself, Nude for Satan was no exception, and perhaps this is where some of his greatest talent came into play as the movie is pretty effectively assembled. In all honesty it’s really only the sex scenes that linger on too long primarily due to the graphic inserts. Due to their obvious different actors, sets and sloppy editing, I can't help but asking the question if Batzelli himself actually inserted the scenes, or if it was under protest, driven by some greedy producer or distributor. These scene have obviously not been given the same attention as the rest of the movie. Whatever be the reason, the movie, strangely, failed miserably at the Italian box office at the time.

Starting with Calderoni running naked through the woods in slow motion, whilst thunder and lightning flash and rumble, accompanied by the crooning vocals set to Alberto Baldan Bembo’s score efectively set’s a tone and mood for the piece. It certainly has a great Italian EuroGoth vibe going on and the first fifteen minutes are really atmospheric with Benson exploring the large windy cobwebbed creepy mansion and eerie score until he opens a door, gasps in shock as he stares at the mixed doubles nocturnal activities going on and sexploitation traits take over… but that’s not necessarily a bad thing is it. Although to do the movie justice, it really is more a EuroGoth mystery with some fantastic sexploitation moments than anything else, despite the seemingly random inserts. And there’s a really freaky spider scene that you won’t want to miss.

Strategia per una missione di morte ( Black Gold Dossier) 1979 saw Batazella direct his last movie. Struggling with ill health he retired from the movie-making racket at the young age of 55 and later passed away in 2008 at the age of 83. A renegade filmmaker who churned out some very memorable movies in his mere fourteen years as a director, some of them shot in less than two weeks. But never the less amongst his fifteen movies there’s still a few classic seedy gems, Nude for Satan is a must see movie for fans of crazy genre movies, and The Beast in Heat is still to this day Banned in the UK and forever immortalised as one of the original Video Nasties.

Luigi Batazella’s Nude for Satan in it's extended form is comming to Scandinavian DVD on the 1st of December, thanks to the team at Njutafilms.

Image:
16x 9 widescreen, Color.

Audio:
English dub, with optional Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norweigan subtitles.

Extras:
Original Trailer, Slideshow and trailers for Sergio Greico’s The Sinful Nuns of St. Valentine, Alfredo Rizzo’s The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance, Enzo G. Castellari’s Cold Eyes of Fear, Walerian Borowczyk’s The Beast and Renato Polselli’s Black Magic Rites.