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Reviews4
HOTFOOTJACKSON's rating
What an amazing film , the use of the cinematography and the landscapes, the acting and a commendable plot make this a must see .
I also admired the way the director used animal hunter and prey film alongside what is happening to the protagonist of the piece.
Oddest thing is that my mum remembered the 'baking' scene and it has stayed with her all this time she saw it on British T.V 38 years ago !! I too thought this to be quite grueling for the films vintage and the fact it was released from one of the major mainstream distributors makes it surprising too.
The new DVD release has done this complete justice but would one expect anything less from the 'Rolls Royce' of DVD distributors. I read on here a comment about the exorbitant price tag but would comment that it deserves it.
So much care has been taken using the best print and the most complete version possible. There is also a fascinating commentary to listen too if you have the time and other worthwhile extras.
This I feel has 'forgotten classic' invisibly etched on every frame.
A must see and must have.
I also admired the way the director used animal hunter and prey film alongside what is happening to the protagonist of the piece.
Oddest thing is that my mum remembered the 'baking' scene and it has stayed with her all this time she saw it on British T.V 38 years ago !! I too thought this to be quite grueling for the films vintage and the fact it was released from one of the major mainstream distributors makes it surprising too.
The new DVD release has done this complete justice but would one expect anything less from the 'Rolls Royce' of DVD distributors. I read on here a comment about the exorbitant price tag but would comment that it deserves it.
So much care has been taken using the best print and the most complete version possible. There is also a fascinating commentary to listen too if you have the time and other worthwhile extras.
This I feel has 'forgotten classic' invisibly etched on every frame.
A must see and must have.
Cronenbergs' visual interpretation on middle class breakdown and venereal chaos starts with a cosy montage of 'Starliner' interior shots. 'Starliner' flats promise all the mod cons, a slice of urban utopia for the upwardly mobile. What it fails too stipulate that it also houses a parasite that takes over the major organs, replicates them and becomes an aphrodisiac for transfer purposes. Throughout the duration of this movie the viewers journey is made most uneasy, as the film progresses ,what starts off as 'bland suburbia' becomes a nightmare of sexual medical horrors and well executed mildly gory sequences .
Three minutes into the movie we see the fatherly Dr. Hobbs and his teenage, lolita-esque, mistress Annabelle engaged in a frenzied argument. The girl is finally murdered by strangulation, cut down the middle and has acid poured into the fleshy cavity. When all is done Dr.Hobbs takes a scalpel to his throat. This is pretty powerful stuff to start the movie, from then on you are most intrigued and have been captivated for the rest of the film.
It's later revealed that Annabelle was the 'Typhoid Mary' of 'Starliner' infecting a suitable number of men with the parasites for breeding and evolution. Dr.Hobbs is also revealed to be one of the culprits for creating the creatures.
The claustrophobic, clinical environment gives Cronenberg wide enough scope to explore the tenants lives to find suburbia isn't that 'cosy', we are faced with desperate individuals that eventually and most morbidly become liberated through the parasite. The arrival of the parasite into this culture only seems to accelerate what deviances are already simmering away under the surface.
The whole film has an icy vein running through it; it is not only environment but also character contribution. An example of this can be witnessed in Dr. Saint Lucs' cool ignorance of pixie - like Nurse Forsyth, despite it is obvious she is in love with him.
Thankfully Cronenberg shows directorial restraint in some of the gruesome episodes of the movie. Steeles' vaginal attack is 'tastefully' achieved but because the way it is filmed makes it seem much more powerful, amazing what your imagination does when filling in the blanks!
Despite the lack of the red stuff, it doesn't mean the film is short of gruelling and unsettling surprises. Elderly people and children become violently sexual zombies could still be quite a shocker with viewing audiences today, especially in such hyper-sensitive times we are living in.
The most well executed pieces of the story were the directors 'stabs' at the middle classes and their safe little world, in their safe little piece of suburbia ; slowly decay and disintegrate before our very eyes and in a macabre way one might feel delightfully sinful.
Check this movie out if you have the odd 2 hours to kill, a little dated but recent viewing suggests it can still pack a powerful punch.
Version; R2 approx.83 minutes (uncut)
Three minutes into the movie we see the fatherly Dr. Hobbs and his teenage, lolita-esque, mistress Annabelle engaged in a frenzied argument. The girl is finally murdered by strangulation, cut down the middle and has acid poured into the fleshy cavity. When all is done Dr.Hobbs takes a scalpel to his throat. This is pretty powerful stuff to start the movie, from then on you are most intrigued and have been captivated for the rest of the film.
It's later revealed that Annabelle was the 'Typhoid Mary' of 'Starliner' infecting a suitable number of men with the parasites for breeding and evolution. Dr.Hobbs is also revealed to be one of the culprits for creating the creatures.
The claustrophobic, clinical environment gives Cronenberg wide enough scope to explore the tenants lives to find suburbia isn't that 'cosy', we are faced with desperate individuals that eventually and most morbidly become liberated through the parasite. The arrival of the parasite into this culture only seems to accelerate what deviances are already simmering away under the surface.
The whole film has an icy vein running through it; it is not only environment but also character contribution. An example of this can be witnessed in Dr. Saint Lucs' cool ignorance of pixie - like Nurse Forsyth, despite it is obvious she is in love with him.
Thankfully Cronenberg shows directorial restraint in some of the gruesome episodes of the movie. Steeles' vaginal attack is 'tastefully' achieved but because the way it is filmed makes it seem much more powerful, amazing what your imagination does when filling in the blanks!
Despite the lack of the red stuff, it doesn't mean the film is short of gruelling and unsettling surprises. Elderly people and children become violently sexual zombies could still be quite a shocker with viewing audiences today, especially in such hyper-sensitive times we are living in.
The most well executed pieces of the story were the directors 'stabs' at the middle classes and their safe little world, in their safe little piece of suburbia ; slowly decay and disintegrate before our very eyes and in a macabre way one might feel delightfully sinful.
Check this movie out if you have the odd 2 hours to kill, a little dated but recent viewing suggests it can still pack a powerful punch.
Version; R2 approx.83 minutes (uncut)
After the sordid delights of 'SS Camp 5 - Womans' Hell' and the bleakly disturbing 'Womans' Camp 119', Bruno Mattei says farewell Nazis and, plumps instead, for a bunch of jailbirds for his next 'women incarcerated' chunk of sleaze.
It is unfortunate I didn't have a copy of 'Blade Violent' to compare this with, this film used the same cast,same sets and virtually same plot. A plus point is that I can review this purely on single merit. On a whole this is a fairly average entry in the Women In Prison genre, featuring three scream queens Gemser, Stoppi and De Selle taking the main roles. Unfortunately these stalwarts of sin cannot save this movie from being a little mundane. The movie tells the tale of our intrepid reporter Emanuelle (Gemser)undercover in a female penitentiary as an inmate. Her task is to report on the corruptive and inhumane practices within the prison/penal system. Eventually we are thrust into the unsavoury W.I.P world where beatings are regularly brandished out by deadpan officers with bad hair, sapphic shennanigans are occurring regularly by the suitably looking 'rough' females and there is of course the obligatory humiliation, mental and physical.
I am unsure whether it is because this is Matteis' first stab at the W.I.P genre (though SS films can't be all that dissimilar surely ?) but I feel the whole movie is rather a tame effort. There a few nasty surprises that borderline on the humourous such as the 'poo punch-up' and a very novel way of bell ringing. The rape sequence, although voyeuristically unsettling to begin with, you gradually find yourself amused as two inmates play pass the parcel with a scantily clad virgin most of this sequence and you wonder in disbelief whether this will end or not.
The direction is well achieved as Mattei uses commendable editing, although the sets are basic, there is still an oppressive decay to the whole affair. Most of Matteis genre films 'Zombie Creeping Flesh','Rats;Night Of Terror','Womens Camp 119' seem to have this vein of industrial atrophy, clinical but chemical and it is this polluted environment that always is the backdrop to some of Matteis' movies making them seem 'nasty'.
Despite sniggering at the dialogue, cringing at the effects and laughing at the dire continuity you always sense a stagnancy that sets the tone from the first frame and lingers throughout until the very last credit. I appreciate Mattei as a director for his grim 'simplicity' and his matter of fact 'I-made-the-films-because-thats-where-the-money-was' attitude. I often think Mattei could've moved onto bigger things but on occasions has been incorrectly underrated.
Buy this to add to the Emanuelle collection, The Mattei collection or WIP Collection that may grace the living room shelf.
VIEWED; UNCUT UNRATED R1 DISC - 99 MINUTES
It is unfortunate I didn't have a copy of 'Blade Violent' to compare this with, this film used the same cast,same sets and virtually same plot. A plus point is that I can review this purely on single merit. On a whole this is a fairly average entry in the Women In Prison genre, featuring three scream queens Gemser, Stoppi and De Selle taking the main roles. Unfortunately these stalwarts of sin cannot save this movie from being a little mundane. The movie tells the tale of our intrepid reporter Emanuelle (Gemser)undercover in a female penitentiary as an inmate. Her task is to report on the corruptive and inhumane practices within the prison/penal system. Eventually we are thrust into the unsavoury W.I.P world where beatings are regularly brandished out by deadpan officers with bad hair, sapphic shennanigans are occurring regularly by the suitably looking 'rough' females and there is of course the obligatory humiliation, mental and physical.
I am unsure whether it is because this is Matteis' first stab at the W.I.P genre (though SS films can't be all that dissimilar surely ?) but I feel the whole movie is rather a tame effort. There a few nasty surprises that borderline on the humourous such as the 'poo punch-up' and a very novel way of bell ringing. The rape sequence, although voyeuristically unsettling to begin with, you gradually find yourself amused as two inmates play pass the parcel with a scantily clad virgin most of this sequence and you wonder in disbelief whether this will end or not.
The direction is well achieved as Mattei uses commendable editing, although the sets are basic, there is still an oppressive decay to the whole affair. Most of Matteis genre films 'Zombie Creeping Flesh','Rats;Night Of Terror','Womens Camp 119' seem to have this vein of industrial atrophy, clinical but chemical and it is this polluted environment that always is the backdrop to some of Matteis' movies making them seem 'nasty'.
Despite sniggering at the dialogue, cringing at the effects and laughing at the dire continuity you always sense a stagnancy that sets the tone from the first frame and lingers throughout until the very last credit. I appreciate Mattei as a director for his grim 'simplicity' and his matter of fact 'I-made-the-films-because-thats-where-the-money-was' attitude. I often think Mattei could've moved onto bigger things but on occasions has been incorrectly underrated.
Buy this to add to the Emanuelle collection, The Mattei collection or WIP Collection that may grace the living room shelf.
VIEWED; UNCUT UNRATED R1 DISC - 99 MINUTES