unclefred

Anguish was released in the 80's and is one of the best of the many slasher films of the period. It stars Zelda Rubenstein who you remember as the psychic dwarf in Poltergeist. You know..."Come to the light..". and Michael Lerner who was great in Burton Fink. Director Gigas Luna is famous for Jamon Jamon.

Anguish won the Golden Raven Award for It's original and compelling horror story. The movie is divided into two realities, a film within a film. In the first, Lerner plays a serial killer who works for an ophthalmologist, He has been killing his victims under the telepathic commands of his psychic Mother, played by Rubenstein. When he kills he steals the victims' eyes and adds them to his bizarre collection. This part of the film is quite good, mainly due to the acting and direction. When things shift, we find ourselves in a movie theater and things are about to go bloodily bad ala Lamberto Bava's "Demons". Don't want to give away more but recommend this one highly. The Anchor Bay dvd is in 2.35:1 format and includes the Spanish trailer.

unclefred

Finally released on DVD by Code Red a couple of years ago, this is a very nice restored version of the old foggy VHS that we all saw on dusty horror shelves, with it's cover portraying a zombie with little light bulbs in it's eyes that were lit up.

In the film, Zombies are called up from a dank and horrifying pit that lies beneath a notorious mental asylum. They are under the control of the evil Psychiatrist Dr. Ramzi, who twenty years before was had been performing horrific experiments on mental patients involving formaldehyde and illegal lobotomies. Following each experiment the doctor would casually toss the dead victims into the pit. A fellow Doctor discovers him in the act and after fighting him off, he slowly bricks him up in his subterranean lab while Ramzi lies dying and swearing that he will get revenge.

When mysterious 'Jane Doe', an amnesiac, is admitted into the asylum she turns out to have amazing subconscious psychic power that wakens Ramzi from his demonic sleep. Jane and Ramzi seem to be psychically linked and she begins to have visions about this strange unknown man. As the visions increase and start to intrude in to her world, he begins to resurrect his former victims from the long mouldering pit. He then sends his zombie army out into the hospital to find new victims for his experiments. Now only Jane, her Doctor and a patient that happens to be a demolitions expert are the ones who are left with the burden of stopping the evil of the Dead Pit.

unclefred

TORSO is, perhaps, director Sergio Martino's most well known movie by Horror fans. Arguably, it sits among the best of his many Gialli such as, All the Colors of the Dark and The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh. As such it is a stylish film with stand-out scenes that draw the veiwer into the story in a way that makes many other slasher films seem plodding. This is a giallo but it seems much like a slasher in that it involves the stalking and dismembering of young girls in the slasher vein but it also has quite a nice little mystery angle which does keep one guessing who the killer is.

The film has been re-released on dvd and Bd by Blue Underground and the new cover art features a large bow-saw on the cover, leaving little doubt as to the content of the film. Indeed, a killer is loose and preying on young college girls who are looking for good times and parties. The lovely Suze Kendall and Tina Aumont are featured as the villain's prey, (There are several others too) . The movie opens with a nicely plotted kill and quickly we get our party scenes featuring lovely naked students. The killing proceeds nicely with several naked deaths birthed by a ski-masked killer, and our four heroines decide it's time to hide out for awhile. They take a holiday in a charming country villa. As you might imagine, this is where things go very wrong.

As the girls lay around in luxurious nudity they are noticed by local folks and pretty soon our masked butcher shows up for some anatomy practice. This is where it gets gory, with some brutal killing, although for me, it just was not graphic enough and was a bit of a let-down. I'm probably in a minority in my view but the nice build up of sex and murder deserves a little more graphic shock in the final scenes. Nonetheless, it is a nice final act with some surprises thrown in that might disprove the viewers idea of what is coming. It is a film worth seeing or owning in my estimation but not up there with the best of the giallo genre.

unclefred

More than likely if you have seen Vengeance of the Zombies, it was the faded print that has been released on a few different labels here and abroad. This one, released on Deimos as part of the 'Paul Naschy Collection', is a very nice clear print with vivid colors and very few artifacts. It makes quite a difference in how the film rates, in my opinion. The film looks good and sounds good with it's somewhat controversial pop-jazz soundtrack. At times it sounds like the Pink Panther rather than a horror film but I kind of dug it. Similar to a giallo score, very retro. The film, in fact, is in some ways a mixture of giallo and horror. Much screen time is devoted to the police and their psychologist attempting to solve a string of murders.

The story is all about Voodoo, the eastern occult and it's black rituals used to enslave the dead to do the bidding of their Master and wreak his vengeance on the families of those whom he opposes. Paul Naschy does a very good job in dual roles and I found him convincing and effective in that macho Naschy fashion. Is he the good guy? Is he the bad guy? I don't think he cares, he just does it his way. The women also provide fine performances and are instrumental in the unfolding of the story, not mere flesh-pops, although they are not shy either. There is no shortage of bloody goings on and bondage scenes with blood- letting to unleash the forces of Voodoo. In fact Naschy has related that many occultic folk contacted him after veiwing the film because of it's authentic rituals and occultic ideation. I enjoyed the film as a solid Naschy effort, if not in his top rank. I think many folks will be pleasantly surprized when they see the crafty masked killer and his garotte of doom and his curved knives of death in action.

I am glad Deimos included this film in the collection and believe folks will enjoy seeing another aspect of Naschy other than Wladimir the werewolf or the demonic Aluric.

unclefred

The ancient Aztec God Quezecoatl has been brought to life by a cult of new agers and is living in a NY skyscraper. When people, such as window washers, sunbathers, and construction workers begin to be picked off by a flying dragon (which we get to watch in living color), Two detectives, played by David Carradine and Richard Roundtree begin to investigate the reports. Meanwhile small- time hood Jimmy, played by Michael Moriarity , is down on his luck and while fleeing from a crime scene climbs up the skyscraper and finds a nest with human body parts and a giant egg.

The detectives are also investigating a series of murders that appear sacrificial in nature and now this. "What next", they are wondering in a cynical NY cop kind of way. They begin to wonder if all these cases are related.

What comes next is Jimmy deciding to cash in on his find by attempting to extort the city for his monetary gain. Moriarity does a nice portrayal of a weasely punk trying to profit from the misery of others. He's quite funny and authentic in his small-timer attempt at being a player.

The writing in this film and good performances by the wonderful cast are what make it so enjoyable. The film was released in the eighties by the look of it and so the sfx are mostly stop-action where the dragon is concerned but I thought that it added to the enjoyment. Cartoonish cgi would have made the film bad-cheesy instead of the good-cheese it is intended to be. Director Cohen loves to take jabs at all segments of NY society and film stereotypes in this, which also elevates its quality. All in all, it's a wonderful tongue in cheek monster movie that is worth a nice buy from Blue-Underground.

unclefred

Horrors of War is an indie flick that should fit the bill for you WWII horror fans. It's 1945 and the Allies are closing in on Germany . Hitler has begun a secret program to develop super-soldiers with supernatural strength and abilities. And so the tagline "Death is not the only thing to fear" comes in to play.

A squad of GI's meets one of the monster troopers and after losing half of their squad, make a report to the brass, they are not beleived, of course, and are reassigned to other suicidal missions. It isn't long before the truth is out and a secret squad is sent to find and terminate the Nazi labratory...

For a small budget indie film, this one succeeds in creating an engaging war setting and sets a good mood early on. A mix of what seem to be veteran actors and newbies provide interesting characters with conflicts and defined personas. Most of the shooting is done in the forest and there are several action scenes as well as werewolf activity..hmm. There are lots of extras on the disk with trailers of other indie efforts and documentaries covering the development of this fine indie effort. All in all, a good package from Maverickentertainment.

Shinobu Sensui

Thanks, unclefred! I'll check that one out soon!

okamido

Better or worse that Outpost?

unclefred

Outpost is better. I'ts more like The Bunker ( which is good too) than Horrors of War. It has a bigger budget and it shows.

unclefred

After the great screen success of Friedkins "The Exorcist", a plethora of movies were produced in Europe to capatilize on the name. Most were very exploitive and tried to out-do Friedkin in the gross-out and sexual scenes. Most were simply not very good. One of those european films was the film "Ecorcism ", starring Spain's own horror icon, Paul Naschy.

Unlike the other Exorcist rip-offs, Naschy has stated he wrote his film well before Friedkin wrote his. There are very few similarities between the two, which lends credence to Naschy's claim. The story revolves around a young girl, Leila, who has become involved with a group of druggy satanists. She is injured severely in a car crash and almost dies. When she recovers she begins to act strangely with angry outbursts toward her family, cursing and flailing about. The family priest, played by Naschy, is called in to help the girl. We soon find that there are many weird family issues that have magnified since the death of Leila's Father, some time ago. Her brother is very over-protective and the butler is pretty strange too. Soon murders follow and Father Naschy begins to ratchet up the investigation to solve the strange, puzzling happenings.

As he begins to take action we are treated to some nice ritualistic orgies and the possibility arises that Satan has little to do with this particular possession. The number of murder suspects also grows. Kind of a fun way to add an almost giallo essence to a possession movie. The movie is not among Naschy's best, but I would recommend it to his fans. a little different than most possession films and better than most. It has been wonderfully restored by the late, great BCI, with a clear transfer.