Berberian Sound Studio

Berberian Sound Studio

Directed by: Peter Strickland

UK, 2012

Thriller, 92min

Ok, quick fix on this movie… Well it’s set in the seventies and about a typical stiff upper lipped British bloke, Gilderoy [Toby Jones], who travels to Italy to work with the sound design on director Santini’s [Antonio Mancino] new historically correct inquisition film The Equestrian Vortex – that’s exploitation horror to you and me and Gilderoy. 

Somewhere between the letters from mom, and being nauseated by the on-screen, off-screen atrocities Toby seemingly falls for Silvia [Fatma Mohamed] - whom producer Francesco Coraggio [Cosimo Fusco] warns Gilderoy has “poison in her tits”. The emotional detour leads him to becoming lost in his own imagination where the line between film and fiction is erased… 

Let’s be honest, Berberian Sound Studio is a tricky movie to grasp in one sitting, and there’s really no right or wrong analysis of this film, as everyone is going to read it their own way. This is one of those films that will split audiences in two halves. The ones who are angered because flips in and out of diegetic and non-diegetic audio, has a really trippy narrative and does all that it possibly can to mess with the audiences head, and the ones that simply take it for what it is – a curious thriller flipping in and out of diegetic and non-diegetic audio, has a really trippy narrative and does all that it can to mess with the audiences head. 

Oh! And Suzy Kendall get’s a credit as special guest screamer!

Let me put it this way, Berberian Sound Studio is fucking brilliant and mandatory viewing for fans of Eurohorror and Giallo. No it’s not a horror film, it’s more of a mental mind trip in with elements of Brian DePalma’s Blow Up, Coppola’s The Conversation, Dario Argento’s Suspiria and Michael Armstrong’s Mark of the Devil… and it’s also a movie about what you didn’t see. NO, this isn’t a Giallo homage, NO, this isn’t a Eurohorror homage, this is something quite different and indeed.

To sum it up, Berberian Sound Studio is like being really drunk and trapped in that scene of the sound engineers in Luigi Cozzi’s “Dario Argento – Master of Horror” creating sound effects and magic that we all associate with classic Italian genre fare. That’s where this movie takes place and if you do like those kind of movies, you will get a kick out of this mind expanding piece of cinema. 

Here’s that scene from Luigi Cozzi’s Dario Argento: Master of Horror which partially captures the essence of Berbian Sound Studio!

And here's the UK trailer:

Soon to be released by NjutaFilms on DVD and also screening at the MONSTERS OF FILM festival 26-29 September.

GUT

GUT

Directed by: Elias

USA, 2012

Horror/Thriller, 90min

    

Two childhood friends, who grew up watching horror and even made their own home made low budget horror films, Tom [Jason Vail], Dan [Nicholas Wilder – who gives an outstanding performance] both work in the same office as adults. They are still friends, but the space between them makes itself painfully apparent at times. Tom never comes over for video nights as much as he used to as he spends most of his out of office time with wife and their daughter. One day Dan manages to lure Tom over for intriguing night of old fashioned horror gawking. The oddity Dan shows Tom is a film he’s obtained over the Internet from an obscure source… With no narrative at all, the film consists of a single shot of a stomach being sliced and a hand stuffed into the cavity. 

The shocking amateur surgery [as in Snuff], and the new films which arrive over time, become a perverse pleasure and birth a budding horror as the two men are drawn into a nightmare of obsession and paranoia. When Tom decides that the obsession must stop, Dan reveals that he’s in deeper than the two friends ever could have imagined.

GUT is an intriguing treat. An intelligent and sardonic slow grinder that digs it’s way into the head of its audience. It’s a movie that plays with our basic emotions of not wanting to be alone. It’s also a movie that digs into the emotions anyone who has passed the age of thirty has through at some point in time. Questioning if it’s time to change, raising the subject if this is all there is to life.

Indie films, especially indie horror, are quite often let down through crap characters and shallow portrayals due to the fact that some indie filmmakers chose to aim straight for the shock and awe moments. GUT is quite the opposite, and is all about character, depth and showcases its moments of grotesqueness with a delicate hand. There may not be any Boo moments – which would really be out of place here as this is psychological horror – but it presents some pretty striking scenes of cold steel slicing through soft tender flesh. But that’s not the prime focus of GUT; it’s the Characters that are the center of attention here.

I’m not going to get into the “Snuff tape” discussion, as I really don’t see that element being the main key to the movie. The movie is about the two men, the tape merely a device to set the action in motion. Lead character, Tom could abandon Dan on several occasions after the initial viewing. But his backstory and history with Dan keep him returning to his once friend, even going back to watch a second, and third recording. Without the delicate portrayal of the two leading men, the film would never have had any of the power it holds over it’s audience.

Tom is a regular guy, a normal bloke who doesn’t stand out in any way. The kind we can relate to and empathize with as we can emotionally recognize the thoughts that he’s having as we are introduced to him. He’s stuck in midlife, experiencing something of a crisis. Trapped in existential anguish, what we all know as the mind-numbing monotone routines of life, he’s desperately trying to shape a new life for himself. He’s trying to find that “something” that is missing from his life, even if it means finding a new job in a new city, moving his family and breaking up the at the time somewhat distant relationship he has with childhood buddy Dan.

Dan is a great character. One we can relate to also, but in a completely different way. He’s a dorky horror buff, who wants to explore how far his voyeurism can go. We’ve all been there, we’ve all been part of the cult that used to watch films with our buddies and see who would cringe first. Dan’s problem is only that his Tom has passed that stage of life. We can easily empathize with Dan too, as I’m guessing we all have had that moment when a fellow co-worker asks the guilt ridden question: Why do you watch those stupid movies? Horror’s supposed to be for kids, and we are definitely not supposed to be watching them as adults… but we do.

If I break it down and stick it under the analytic gaze, GUT is a movie about two men and the space that has occurred in-between them. They used to be close, but time and growing up has drawn them apart. With that in hand the events of the film make sense. One could argue that the film is all about how far you would go to keep a relationship. What would you do to cling on to that one best friend you constantly feel slipping away from you?

In some ways the movie is all about the refusal to let go. Dan feels left behind; he’s a loner, an outsider, still in the same position that he was when he and Tom left the same path. It’s apparent that he has a completely different life from Tom, despite working in the same office.  The two men are polarized opposites of each other, Tom with family and responsibilities living an adult life, and Dan on the other end still living the life of a kid. Metaphorically that is.

So the inciting incident is found when Tom, somewhat degradingly, asks Dan “Seen any gore porn lately?” and Dan sardonically replies “Oh Better…You have to see this to believe it…” Dan has started his quest to regain his friendship with Tom, and Tom is sent off on his journey as he watches the film Dan has obtained.  Both men entangled in the web of the sinister recording.

It would be easy to say that the opening shot of GUT is the initial attack, but I’m saying it’s not. It’s a red herring and certainly an attention grabber. Part of Elias cunning play with convention… Instead the initial attack comes much later, almost ten minutes into the film. Elias opts to establish his characters first.  Tom’s boring life, Dan’s lonely life, and then presents what I say is the initial attack, where the camera almost candidly lingers just below the table which the yet unseen assailant slices up a young woman on. There’s a video camera rigged to the right of frame – obviously taping the scene Dan will receive and show Tom later. Now we know that there’s someone slicing up young women, and it gives us three optional paths of through, Dan, Tom or someone yet to be presented.

The guilt Tom experiences and the projective nightmares drive him to force Dan into a corner. It’s the same guilt that keeps Tom from abandoning Dan there and then. You can’t abandon your oldest friend without feeling guilty. But when cornered Dan breaks down. Reveals truths that completely shatter the rekindled friendship. It also sets the scene for the possible threat of an external part. In easy and intelligent ways, Elias weaves a delicate story with many layers and paths that keep it from being predictable.

Technically the film is beautiful. The cinematography is solid and delivers some great compositions. Editing is flawless. Time has obviously been put down on the soundscape of the film, another area often neglected in Indie genre films, and the sound of the plastic restraining straps clicking tightly into place made the hairs on my arms stand up. There’s a passion to detail in GUT that’s rarely noticed in genre pieces. Timing and pace is worth pointing out as the movie tells a tale that could have been told in a short film form, but is instead disposed at a feature film length. It works and the natural curiosity of wanting to know the truth lures the audience in safe and firm.

Slowly building, taunting its audience, keeping facts and truths hidden in the dark, GUT seeps into some really dark and haunting territory during its last act and definitely builds a really tense noose of suspense before crashing into a devastating reveal. If you get a chance to check out Elias GUT, then take it, as this film may just well become your new obsession…

Mr Bricks: A Heavy Metal Murder Musical

Mr Bricks: A Heavy Metal Murder Musical

Directed by: Travis Campbell

USA, 2011

Crime/Musical 71min

Distributed by: Troma

Musical… yeah, a musical, a heavy metal musical. I’m not much of a fan of musicals. Sure I’ll enjoy Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tommy, Phantom of the Opera (for it’s sheer gothic values) and even Grease because I love fifties/sixties music. But it more or less stops there… perhaps even The Sound of Music for it’s Nuns and Nazi angle which I definitely watch in a completely different way than my mom, but that’s about it.

When you take a step back and look at the titles above, it becomes apparent that they are all tied together through the horror/outsider angle that predominates the genre films I dig too. So when I had a chance to check out Mr Bricks – a movie that Lemmy says, “you must see this film” about – I gave it a shot.

 In short it’s a monster muscle man with something of a magneto helmet tattoo that covers his head, who smashes the skulls of his enemies whilst trying to find the woman he loves… well what’s not to dig?

Mr Bricks opens with a moment of initial violence when the namesake of the film, Mr Bricks [Tim Dax] awakes after being shot in the head at close range. Dazed on the dirty floor of an abandoned warehouse, as blood pulsates out of the hole in his cranium. He struggles to get up and grabs one of the red stilettos heeled shoes lying next to the filthy matrasses next to his bloody body. A series of black and white flashbacks recap the story so far for us, showing Bricks and his female kidnap victim who now is nowhere to be found. He breaks out in a song that is more or less a synopsis for the film we are about to see – “You can’t kill me, I’ll find you again!” And so starts Mr Bricks search for Scarlet, the woman he is so profoundly in love with that it keeps him at arms length from the realm of death.

Mr Bricks is basically a revenge flick with a triangle drama at the core. Mr Bricks Officer Carmine Dukes [Vito Trigo] and Officer Scarlett Moretti [Nicola Fiore] – Bricks object of desire. A triangular drama that comes bursting out with some serious moments of violence. After all, they call him Mr Bricks because his preferred weapon of choice are concrete bricks that leave a gooey mess when forcefully brought together with some poor victims head in between them. The revenge angle plays out in three different ways, Bricks revenge on Scarlet and Dukes for taking his love from him, Scarlet’s revenge on her captor Bricks, and Dukes revenge on Bricks for taking Scarlet away form him. Complex web, but it works when you get to know the characters and the motivation for their actions.

The narrative of Mr Bricks is an interesting one as it’s mixes classic straightforward dialogue, backstory told through flashbacks and several moments of hard singing to declare the emotions that the characters are feeling at the moment – and I have to say that some of these songs are really catchy bits. At the same time thats kinda what makes a musical a musical isn't it, sharing inner thoughts with the audience.

Bricks is driven by the Love he holds for Scarlet, the same love that gives him the power to seal up bullet wounds with a staple gun. When it all comes around it’s a noble cause, and in it’s own way also one that makes Mr Bricks a rather complex lead character. He’s still a badass bad guy, but his quest is one we can relate to – even if we perhaps wouldn’t kidnap the woman of our dreams. It’s all about dimension kids, and without dimension in characters, they mean nothing.

But that’s not all,  there is a last act reveal, a last act reveal that actually makes the narrative even more complex and gives a deeper, and stranger, insight into what more drives Bricks love for Scarlett. An insight that shakes things up a bit and may possibly be part of a set up for a sequel or even a prequel.

Using a love triangle, not necessarily a chosen one, but forced as we are dealing with kidnapping captivity and obsession, Mr Bricks is much more than your average love story.  I use the word love story as that’s basically what is at the core of the film, and it’s the same love that drives Mr Bricks, in some magical way it’s also what keeps him alive, despite close range shots to the head, to the body and knife rammed into his tender flesh on several occasions. From Scarlett’s perspective there’s a whole bag of emotions concerning her feelings for Mr Bricks, especially when she learns that she’s pregnant and has some delightful pregnancy nightmares.

The musical numbers bring something kind of unique flavour to the piece – I seriously believe that it wouldn’t have worked at all if the songs hadn’t been the forceful songs that they are, as the rawness f the songs pretty much work metaphorically to describe emotional states and feelings that you wouldn’t ever want to hear in dialogue, because a guy walking down a street singing how angry he is or a chick singing how repulsed she is would be completely crap in dialogue.                                      

 

A detail that popped out on the second viewing was that there’s a fucking awesome montage of Mr Bricks life passing him by just before the bullet shatters his skull. Details like that really earn movies points in my book.

I love the grainy gritty cinematography (I don’t know if it’s processed, but it looks great and this is the way I think of New York when I hear the words low budget indie cinema from the big apple. It’s no coincidence that Buddy Giovanazzo’s Combat Shock comes to mind) I’d call it, gritty low budget cinema with some rockin’ tracks which invite it’s audience to sing along, and who knows, this may just be a cult classic in the making!

Coming out of Troma one could expect Mr Bricks to be more of the novelty, schlocky, fun shit kicking kind, as something like Cannibal the Musical was or indeed as many of the films under the Troma banner. But Mr Bricks is a serious film, there’s no quirky comedy or fart gags, or witty innuendo dialogue. It plays for keeps and in it’s own universe it works really well. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but despite that we need films like this, we need companies like Troma who dare give independent filmmakers a chance to get their stuff out there, and we definitely need independent filmmakers like Travis Campbell who dare stick to their guns and see their dream through.

This is what independent cinema is all about, telling a story in your own unique way, creating memorable characters, leaving an imprint and if we get a few catchy tunes along the way, then that’s a welcome bonus!

Mr Bricks: A Heavy Metal Musical is currently available from Troma on DVD 

Amsterdamned

Amsterdamned

Directed by: Dick Maas

Netherlands, 1988

Horror, 104 min

Distributed by: Shameless Screen Entertainment

Around this time a couple of years back dutch director, Dick Maas, made a pretty decent return to the horror genre with his customary horror themed thrillers with the movie Sint (Saint) 2010. Sint tells the tale of what happens when Saint Nick comes to kidnap children of Amsterdam and the police stand powerless against the mystic entity.  In the role of The Saint, we see long time Maas collaborator Huub Stapel, who has acted as something of a red thread through the majority of Maas work.             

Back in the eighties, Maas was something of an interesting name for European genre, mixing American slasher aesthetics with thriller, black comedy and horror themes and sticking them in his native Netherlands. The Lift, Amsterdamned and Do Not Disturb to name a few, where damned entertaining pieces in their time, and you can certainly see how they have influenced films that came in their wake… Now it’s finally time to revisit the canals of Amsterdam when Shameless Screen Enterainment release his seminal film Amsterdamned in a spanking new release filled with bonus goodies.

Police inspector Eric Visser [Huub Stapel] has his work cut out for him, when a serial killer is stalking innocent victims who just happen to be in the vicinity of the Amsterdam canals. Without any solid evidence apart from a bunch of stiff’s in the morgue, time is running out for Visser to apprehend the mad man of the Amsterdam canals.

It’s a slasher, in water! What else would you expect from a movie that takes place in Amsterdam! You use what you can, and Maas plays it by the book. Hiding a serial killer behind a diving suit and having him swim the canals of Amsterdam is pure genius!

I love the way this movie establishes its antagonist. As the credits fade in and out, we take the classic slasher p.o.v. whilst he swims through the canals, peeking up out of the water at restaurants and Amsterdam’s infamous red light district in search of a victim. It’s setting us up for the initial attack, where a prostitute is stalked and killed by the mystery murderer. Left standing at the foot of the bridge is the cranky old bag lady that witnesses the violent slaying… Yeah, there’s no question about what this movie is; Classic slasher with a new brilliant twist – well it was new back in 88.

Cut to present the protagonist. A goody two shoes detective who lives with his teenage daughter, has great parenting skills, but is a bit of a Joe as he steps in the cat’s bowl. As the gooey cat food squelches between his feet, we can already like him, as he’s not perfect, he has flaws too. He finally arrives at the scene of the crime and the bag lady claims that a “monster” killed the prostitute. It’s going to be a tricky case isn’t it.

Exposition is presented in dialogue scenes, which actually work pretty neat, as we learn just how great a cop Visser really is. Such as the intuition, patience and luck that helped him solve the murder of a quizmaster three years earlier, a case with no leads at all. It’s important, as this intuition, patience and luck will obviously come back later on in this seemingly impossible case of the murdering diver.

There’s also a fun little subplot focusing on Visser’s love thirst. As his wife walked out on him, with another guy and moved to France, Eric’s desperately on the search for love, which has him flirting and chatting up women all the time. It’s a fun detail that gives some dimension to his character, and then he meet’s Laura [Monique van de Ven, who you may recognize from a few early Paul Verhoven films]. A woman who he will stop at nothing to have!

Amsterdamned also uses a little subplot concerning Eric’s daughter and Willie, a child amateur psychic, who team up in an attempt to find the killer as the give her dad more free time to spend with her. It never really sums up too much or affects the main narrative in anyway, but it’s kind of naively cute.

Amsterdamned has a fair body count and a couple of surprise kills, most of them off screen, but effective. One especially raw scene sees the diver ram his knife up through a small floatie raft. The knife places itself between the legs of a suave girl in a bikini before she’s forcefully dragged towards the razor sharp blade, a classic cringer. Being a thriller with elements of horror and suspense, there’s also a couple of great genre correct jump scares one a delicious Jaws homage.

Mystery builds up through the investigation plot used, and finally we reach the last act, where all is prepared for grand climax. And it is a grand climax, which involves races against the clock, and a last moment surprise! True to Slasher formula the killers identity is revealed, as are the motifs for killings, and the genre traits don’t stop there!

Amsterdamned comes with a bunch of extras, such as Amsterdamned – The city, the film – the makers, several original trailers, image gallery and a show reel of new Shameless titles from their back catalogue and soon to be released gems – such as Pupi Avati’s La casa dalle finestre che ridono (The House With the Laughing Windows) 1976. 

The Amsterdam Ripper has a brand new flipper! Dick Maas Amsterdamned is released on DVD in the UK on the 22nd of October.