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[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]

“I’m mad, don’t forget it.”

Rossano Brazzi’s Psychout for Murder feels like an off choice to be writing about for Gialloween. While the marketing of this classic ’60s Italian thriller wants you to expect a piece of giallo, it feels incredibly different and unique in many ways. It can’t be characterized as a murder mystery of gruesome horrors. It’s not suspenseful or shocking even. There is murder, but the way these crimes are executed is much more satisfying and clever than a knife in hand could create. There are no slit throats, no gushes of blood, no one hung bloodied from a ceiling. It’s a psychological thriller of social significance, a symbol of the Swinging Sixties and women’s liberation.

The viewer is greeted with a sensual, sexy opening. A beautiful woman’s features are accentuated as she traces her hand across her lover’s body.

If you've read Scott Drebit's Blu-ray reviews for Wax Mask, Paganini Horror, and The Peanut Butter Solution, just to name a few, then you know that here at Daily Dead, we're big fans of the eclectic physical home media releases from the talented team at Severin Films. The company is looking to continue their tradition of obscure and intriguing releases this spring, as they've announced three new Blu-rays for May that should please fans of multifaceted international horror.

Announced on their Facebook page, Severin Films' May Blu-ray releases include Satan's Slave (1980) aka Pengabdi Setan, a limited edition of The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), and Horrors of Spider Island (1960). All three Blu-rays are scheduled to come out on May 26th.

You can check out the full release details, trailers, and cover art for the Blu-rays below, and be sure to visit Severin Films' website for more information, including details...

Review by Roger Carpenter

At first glance, Horror Express wouldn’t seem to be the type of film a company such as Arrow Video USA would release. Sure, it’s a European horror film and sure, it’s a bit of a cult film as well. But the film has had so many budget VHS, DVD, and Blu releases one can’t help but wonder why Arrow would give it any special treatment.

Until you see the film itself.

Horror Express, directed by Spanish journeyman director Eugenio Martin, has two things going for it that many films of this ilk don’t: it’s a well-made, rip-roaring adventure yarn and it’s also much more than a low budget horror offering.

Though the film was made on a very low budget, Director Martin had already had enough experience with low budgets to know how to produce a quality film with few resources.

It’s a spooky, snowy train ride across thousands of miles of Siberian rails — trapped on board with a victim-possessing creature from outer space, with eyes that kill! Actually, ‘Pánico en el transiberiano’ is a fine show for Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, a Spanish-made chiller with a smart script and some effective shocks.

Horror Express

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1972 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date February 12, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video

Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, Alberto de Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Julio Peña, Ángel del Pozo, Helga Liné.

Cinematography: Alejandro Ulloa

Original Music: John Cacavas

Written by Arnaud d’Usseau, Julian Zimet

Produced by Bernard Gordon

Directed by Eugenio Martín

Dedicated horror fans look to the past to uncover forgotten chillers, or just to complete their lists of rare items unseen. For instance, although no release date has been given, we’re told that Kino Lorber will be giving...

Tuesday, July 17th looks to be another busy day for home media releases, as we have a rather interesting blend of titles, both new and old. As far as recent flicks go, Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare, The Housemaid, Rampage, and You Were Never Really Here are the big highlights of this week’s Blu-ray and DVD debuts. And for those of you who are looking to expand your cult cinema collections, Arrow Video is keeping busy with new HD releases of The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail and Doom Asylum.

Other notable releases for July 17th include the new EndoArm edition of Terminator 2 in 4K, the Church of the Damned/Bad Magic double feature Blu-ray, Amityville Prison, and The Antithesis.

Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare

Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) lead the cast of Blumhouse's Truth or Dare, a supernatural thriller from Blumhouse Productions.

One of the major consequences of Western Europe s post-war Economic Miracle was the proliferation of international travel. Eager to tap into audiences desire to experience the glamor of the jet set lifestyle, the popular filmmakers of the day rushed to make the most of the exotic locales at their disposal.

Arguably no other giallo captured this trend as vividly as The Case of the Scorpion s Tail. The film begins in London, where Lisa Baumer learns that her husband has died in a freak plane accident. Summoned to Athens to collect his generous life insurance policy, she soon discovers that others besides herself are keen to get their hands on the money and are willing to kill for it. Meanwhile, private detective Peter Lynch arrives to investigate irregularities in the insurance claim. Teaming up with a beautiful reporter, Cléo Dupont, Lynch resolves to unearth the truth… before he too...

By Adrian Smith

Julie Wardh (Edwige Fenech) is a woman who needs some time off men: she attempts to escape her sado-masochistic relationship with Jean (Ivan Rassimov) by marrying Neil Wardh (Alberto de Mendoza), an ambassador at the Italian embassy in Austria. But things are not that simple. Julie suffers from erotic nightmares, wherein she makes love to Jean whilst being showered in broken glass, but continues to proclaim her hatred for him to anyone that will listen, including jean himself. At a friend’s party, where women tear paper dresses from each other and wrestle naked, Julie meets the cool George (George Hilton) a man determined to seduce Mrs Wardh, regardless of her husband or complicated romantic history. He seems kind and he rides a motorbike, so it does not take Mrs Wardh long to fall for him.

Of course, this being a giallo, in the middle of this...

Top Ten Scream Queens: Barbara Steele, who both emitted screams and made others do same, is in a category of her own. Top Ten Scream Queens Halloween is over until next year, but the equally bewitching Day of the Dead is just around the corner. So, dead or alive, here's my revised and expanded list of cinema's Top Ten Scream Queens. This highly personal compilation is based on how memorable – as opposed to how loud or how frequent – were the screams. That's the key reason you won't find listed below actresses featured in gory slasher films. After all, the screams – and just about everything else in such movies – are as meaningless as their plots. You also won't find any screaming guys (i.e., Scream Kings) on the list below even though I've got absolutely nothing against guys who scream in horror, whether in movies or in life. There are...

'And Then There Were None' movie with Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, June Duprez, Louis Hayward and Roland Young. 'And Then There Were None' movie remake to be directed by Oscar nominee Morten Tyldum One of the best-known Agatha Christie novels, And Then There Were None will be getting another big-screen transfer. 20th Century Fox has acquired the movie rights to the literary suspense thriller first published in the U.K. (as Ten Little Niggers) in 1939. Morten Tyldum, this year's Best Director Academy Award nominee for The Imitation Game, is reportedly set to direct. The source for this story is Deadline.com, which adds that Tyldum himself “helped hone the pitch” for the acquisition while Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010, The Thing 2011) will handle the screenplay adaptation. And Then There Were None is supposed to have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, thus holding the...

The Enforcer

Written by Martin Rackin

Directed by Bretaigne Windust (and Raoul Walsh, uncredited)

U.S.A., 1951

Assistant district attorney Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Boggart) has worked tirelessly to see the day when notorious gang mastermind Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane) is convicted for his most dastardly crimes and sentenced to rue his errors for a hellishly long time behind bars. That career defining moment is but hours away when key protected witness and former associate of Mendoza’s, Joseph Rico (Ted de Corsia), is brought to the police station to spend the night. Events quickly spiral out of control, leading to Rico’s unceremonious demise right under the police noses, prompting Ferguson and police captain Nelson (Roy Roberts) to make haste and study the many archival documents relating to the events and charges pressed against Mendoza in the hopes of finding further damning evidence…

Happenstance would have it that this week...

An ambassador, Neil Wardh (Alberto de Mendoza), and his wanton wife, Julie (Edwige Fenech), arrive in Vienna for business in the midst of a vicious killing spree that has everyone in a panic. Julie's return to the city rouses memories of former lover Jean (Ivan Rassimov) and their sadomasochistic relationship. It also helps that her husband is utterly dull, busy, and inattentive. The restless Julie has a dark secret that only Jean knows about: blood frightens her, but it also arouses her unimaginably. Julie's cruel ex-boyfriend stalks her and sends unnerving love letters, but she finds comfort at swinging parties and in the arms of another man, George (George Hilton). As the city's body count begins to rise, and a mysterious caller threatens to expose her adulterous and kinky secrets, Julie suspects she's next and that Jean is behind the murders and madness. She escapes to Spain with George for a fresh start,...

Montiel movies: From the blockbuster La Violetera to new versions of Carmen and Camille (Please check out the previous post: "Legendary Spanish Star Dead at 85."] Next in line for the sensual, husky-voice performer was a second tear-jerking hit: Luis César Amadori's La Violetera ("The Violet Peddler," 1958), for which Montiel is supposed to have earned $1 million dollars. In this romantic musical melodrama, she plays Soledad Moreno, a flower seller in the Madrid of the early 1900s, who falls in passionately love with an aristocrat played by Italian star Raf Vallone. As to be expected, class issues arise. Soledad flees for France, where she becomes (surprise!) a singing sensation. What follows includes tears, despair, a deadly iceberg (heard of the Titanic?), psychological and physiological trauma, and, finally, eternal love. Pictured above: A very sexy Montiel in a risque Gina Lollobrigida-like pose. “La violetera was even bigger than El último cuplé,...

Images courtesy Severin/Mpi

Horror Express

1972 91mins Britain, Spain

Blu-Ray/DVD combo

Director: Eugenio Martin

Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, Alberto de Mendoza, Helga Line

Severin/Mpi

Review By J.Astro

“Monster? We’re British, you know!”

So goes my personal favorite line of dialogue from Peter Cushing’s character in Horror Express, and it embodies the dry wit with which this flick positively crackles. Message boards on genre sites & horror blogs across the land have long chattered with enthusiasm for a decent release of this film, since it was egregiously out of print for quite a long time, except in the guise of el-cheapo, fly-by-night knockoffs with terrible sound or muddy, chopped up, incorrectly framed transfers. There was a slightly better/”official” iteration put out some years ago under Image Entertainment’s EuroShock label, but that is now only available on the secondary market, at a drastic...

Madrid, Dec 13 (Ians/Efe) Actor Alberto de Mendoza, one of the heartthrobs of Spanish movies, died Monday in Madrid, a performing artists association said. He was 88.

The actor was admitted several days ago to La Luz Clinic with breathing trouble.

The star of films like 'Tapas', 'Una Abuelita de antes de la Guerra' (Pre-war Grandma), 'Filomena Marturano' and 'Zorrita Martinez', Alberto Manuel Rodriguez Gallego Gonzalez de Mendoza, a Buenos Aires native and a pioneer among Argentine actors who made it on the Spanish stage, was born Jan 21, 1923.

De Mendoza made his name in the 1970s as one of the outstanding.

Hitting movie theaters this weekend:

Shame (limited) - Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale

Sleeping Beauty (limited) - Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie

Movie of the Week

Sleeping Beauty

The Stars: Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie

The Plot: A haunting portrait of Lucy (Browning), a young university student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of unspoken desires.

The Buzz: This film’s trailer contained more than a few subtle hints that Sleeping Beauty was to enact some very sinister sexual episodes, and a very creepy/harsh vibe was diffused throughout. I saw the film a few weeks ago and found that it fully lived up to its advertising.

The film was thoroughly dark, and had somewhat of a male-hating bent to it — I suppose that’s why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d anticipated I would. There’s also a professed loathing of the wealthy therein,...