Beyond the Darkness (Buio Omega) 1979/ review by the Director

 

The edge of Darkness:

Frank Wyler is visiting his beloved Anna Volkl in the hospital. She is very sick. As they kiss Anna dies in Franks arms. Tormented Frank is not ready to let Anna go. Now we go onto the darkness aka madness and beyond.

In the Beyond:

To give you a little backstory on Frank. His parents were quite wealthy. Frank has inherited their gorgeous villa, a lot of money, stocks, and investments. He is set for life. Frank has a passion for taxidermy, women, and jogging. He is a good-looking well dressed a stereotypical affluent out of touch with reality playboy. Frank’s home is taken if care of Iris, who clearly has concupiscence for young Frank. It’s clear early on she takes care of Frank beyond her household duties. Doing things for him like letting him nurse from her nipple and jerk him off when he is stressed. Nice of her huh? Frank still treats her like shit. He even slaps her around at one point, not a good thing to do to someone who practices voodoo.

Frank has a plan to keep his beloved Anna a part of his life. He is beyond devoted. You will probably figure out soon enough it involves his taxidermy skills.

Frank is quit the lunatic and will go to any lengths to keep his macabre tactics operating.

This results in several deaths and some truly gruesome dissections. I don’t mind gore but italian film makers use real organs in their special effects and it was difficult to watch while I ate my raisin bran.

Frank’s murders don’t elude police investigation. Iris helps Frank cover his murders up. She obviously enjoys the dastardly deeds they engage in. There is another man investigating Frank and he becomes a problem for Frank and Iris. How all this unfolds you can enjoy for yourself when you go beyond the darkness.

Acting: Frank (Kieran Canter) is very believable in this role. He is the highlight, carries the movie, and has voice over work by Ted Rusoff who works on several Joe D’amato Italian films for the english voice over. Ted does fantastic voice over work. I enjoy listening to him. Iris (Franca Stoppi) is creepy and steals her scenes. Other than them the rest of the cast are supporting and rather thin characters, but they don’t need to be well established for their small roles.

Gore:

This is a gore hound buffet. It’s a good example of video nasty. A reputation the Italian horror films earn quite deservingly. Very, very realistic needle injections, if those are fake I don’t know how they pulled them off. Close up stabs that look very real. Ripped off finer nails with pliers. Chopped up bodies and burned or disintegrated by acid baths which looks awesome.

A disgusting dissection scene you won’t soon for get. Great looking large scalpel incisions. Copious organ gore and it all looks very real, probably actual animal organs.

Nudity: Frank flashes his cock. Iris flashes her boob and four different girls get naked full frontal with large italian bush.

Two of the women are dead with they are striped, not so sexy. But lots of nudity!

Directing:

The setting is gorgeous. The scenes are well shot.

It’s classic Joe D’Amato. Good looking actors. A subtle sensuality about the film and the dread of madness through out. I enjoyed several scenes, the dissections, the grave robbery, the even, yet sort of slow, pace.

The dissections were particularly well shot, well lit, to maximize the great special effects. D’Amato did well keeping as little as possible hidden from the camera.
Classic ‘zoom ins’ for zingers on peoples’ faces for reaction shots. This was popular around this time because zoom technology on film cameras had taken a leap forward and Joe D’Amato loved to use his zoom. Reminds me of Bruce Lee films. If you like Joe D’Amato’s solid work you will see more of it here.

Music: The score is by The Goblins who are great. They have done the music for popular foreign films like Susperia where they really shine. Again the Goblins score in Beyond the Darkness is a great highlight to the movie.

Final Thought:

There is a slight drag in the movie about 60% of the way in. You pretty much know where things are going and you feel a little anxious for this creepshow to finally end. So I can’t give it a perfect score. The film holds up. Great score by the Goblins. It’s still gross and there is lots of nudity and madness.

It’s classic video nasty cinema and I highly recommend getting a copy.

-The Director

Black Sunday reviewed by zee Director

Black Sunday

 

What the hell is going on? 

Asa (Barbara Steele) full-time witch and part-time vampire is put to a violent death by her own fucking brother Prince Vajda! The Prince renounces any ties with his sister, because seriously, nothing divides a family like religion. Asa vows to exact revenge on her family until Vadja shuts her up with a nasty little relic of medieval torture. It is referred to as the Mask of Satan.

The Mask of Satan as seen worn on the red carpet by Ann Hathaway 

The Mask has an Asian samurai looking battlestar galactica face on one side and long ass spikes on the inside. The bastards place that leaden veil on Asa’s face and with a giant hammer, at her brother’s behest, pound that mask into place. That is dressing up for Halloween the hard way.

         My hammer is a tree trunk. 

Sunday getting blacker: 

This film is directed by Mario Bava. He is the great Italian director from the golden age of Italian horror films. Bava’s work inspired the italian ‘gaillo’ film genre which later influenced the modern day slasher films. I obviously recommend his work as it was recommend to me.

Ironically the film is black & white and film has ‘black’ in the title yet there are no black people in the film.

After Asa is masked ‘iron maiden style’ she is buried in a coffin. The coffin has a little glass window at the face. Neat, huh? You don’t see many of those. Coffins with a view. It’s on purpose though. A giant cross is placed in clear view for Asa (through the mask of satan) which renders her powerless. Here, she is left to rot, and rot she dost.

Black Sunday then picks up on the 200th anniversary of Asa and her vampire lover/servant Javutich’s, death by angry mob. The current elderly Prince Vajda knows about the anniversary and is particularly troubled this year. His house servant gives him a phat gold cross and reminds him that crazy dead bitches can’t do shit when you gots a gold ass cross like dat. Well he doesn’t say it like that, being an elderly white man, but it’s basically what he says.

Elsewhere bumbling Doctor Kruejan and handsome young Doctor Gorovek are traveling to Moscow for a medical conference. Dr. Kruejan is a lot like Inspector Gadget but without the gadgets. (I”m not going to type out these long foreign names, so I’ll give them nicknames. Dr. K, and Goro.) Goro has a little too much delicious Russian vodka and Dr. K sends him off to bed. He tells Goro he is going to take a stroll with his pipe and then be up. I assume he isn’t going to take advantage of Goro. It’s not that type of movie. But, it is foreign so you really never know. That’s part of the reason foreign films can be so satisfying.

Without going through all the details, Dr. K ends up in the crypt of Asa the witch. The stooge knocks over the giant cross shattering it, which breaks the window in Asa’s coffin. If that isn’t enough he manages to cut himself and drip his blood on Asa. Here I’m not sure if this begins to restore Asa back to life, because she is a vampire or a witch. She is referred to as a witch yet she behaves like a vampire. It’s a little confusing but, it’s not really as big an issue as I’m making it seem.

Asa calls forth her love and servant Javutich from the grave. Javutich’s wet slimly hand pushes up from the moist earth. I love when you see the dead coming up from the grave. I may be wrong but most modern movies do not have zombies coming up from graves. Though Javutich isn’t a zombie. He is one ugly comrade and there is no way he is plugging Barbara Steele.

(even with his needle dick in her bot fly holes)

Javutich slowly digs himself out of the grave. Great scene. Oh and look another Mask of Satan!

Now the evil witch and her sidekick are back. They quickly posses Dr. K, (doctor of stupidity) and use him to dispatch the prince. It is here I will stop giving plot details.

Ok a few more important details. the Princess is Asa’s mirror image. Actually she is. Barbara Steele plays a dual role as Asa and the Princess. Dr. Goro and a priest become our protagonists, mostly Dr. Goro, who falls for the Princess.

   Dr. Gorovek on the right, me on the left. 

Oh and there is an angry mob. Apparently, before the TV and the internet forming an angry mob was how people entertained themselves at night.

It’s branding time bitch aka a typical weeknight in Russia before TV and the internet. 

Acting: 

I thought Barbara Steele’s performance as the witch stole the show. When she was the princess. She was very somber and pretty in goth but, when she was the witch, you couldn’t take your eyes off her. Well done.
Everyone else was good. I think actors in this era seemed to take their job very seriously. I thought everyone did well. Dr. Goro was a bit of a tool, but it was his character. He reminded me of a prince from a disney movie. Which disney prince? Any of them, except Aladdin, or any non-white 50s era type prince.

Sex:

Mario Bava doesn’t shy away from sex and nudity. This movie should have had some, but nada. So here is an image from one of Bava’s other films (The House of Exorcism) if you are a fourteen year old boy.

Gore:

We get the mask of Satan worn, ouch, some eye gouging, impaling, human bar-b-que, post mask of Satan scares, which look like the worse bot fly marks or the worst black heads ever. (‘Black’ heads in ‘Black’ Sunday!) One very cool eye forming in a skull effect. Mario Bava was know for his special effects and worked on creature FX in some films.

Javutich’s face is disgustingly gory. His bangs and mustache will haunt your dreams.

‘Come with me.’ (Hello! Who wouldn’t?)

Final Black Thought:

Ironically it’s Sunday as I type this in black.

This is a classic foreign horror. It’s creepy and scary like a campfire tale then a walk in the blackest woods. Though today’s movies have amazing practical special FX and CGI, there are classic tales like Black Sunday that still captivate. With me it’s often about two things, was it entertaining? and did it provide me with an escape from reality? This film did both for me. I loved the atmosphere. The details, the costumes, the creepiness of the film, the actors, and the the satanic genre. I don’t watch many black and white movies. I found I quickly accepted the lack of color and wasn’t irritated by it.

I wish there had been some nudity. But I’m just being sleazy. Perhaps the era of sleazy exploitation was not yet upon us. Truth is everything about this movie was cool and spooky, it was little details in films like this that inspired modern day horror masters and their predecessors in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It is considered the pinnacle of Italian gothic horror. Who am I to question that reputation? Watch it and let it enfold you.

-Director

Cannibal Holocaust reviewed by Das Director

      Cannibal Holocaust

 

The Rep:

Banned in multiple countries! The alleged most controversial movie ever made. The film crew was arrested after production. PETA advocates are foaming at the mouth in disgust. Is this real cannibalism? Will I see naked natives eating human flesh? Perhaps you’ve seen the pictures.

Is it all shock and hype or is there a good movie buried under all this fluff?

Let’s get out the fork and knife: 

Ok, ok, so what is this shocker about? Four asshole adventurous film makers head off in the deep Amazonian jungle. Three fucktard dudes and one immodest chick in search of a lost cannibal tribe still around in this modern age.

Referred to as the green inferno for good reason, the amazon is a suffocatingly hot and dangerous place. It’s not really an exaggeration to say everything and everyone is trying to kill each other. If it can’t kill them, they kill it.

Our fearless quartet of film makers never return from the jungle. Did they find the cannibals they were looking for? A doctor of anthropology wants to find out.

He finds a couple really cool guides to lead him into cannibal country.

They expose him to various stone age tribes, animal cruelty, and some tangy native hairy gash. The guide reminds me exactly of Sid Haig in the Big Doll House. The guide uses cocaine, which is totally easy to get in the inferno I assume, to control the cannibal guide to lead them to his crew. Of course he also snorts a little himself all bad ass, off a buck knife blade.

The Doctor eventually finds the film cans lost from the four ass clown explorers. Trading the film cans for some shit like a watch and gold plated lighter the doctor skips back to the big city to enjoy some serious amateur cannibal exploitation films.

The group of professionals including the doctor, a lawyer, some TV executives, sit back and it’s show time. Here begins the second movie. Cannibal Holocaust is really a film within a film. The second movie is the lost film footage shot by the four douche bag film makers. Keep in mind this was done decades before Blair Witch or Cloverland made a movie appear to be shot by the actors. I have to give Cannibal holocaust major props for originality.

The Group shoots plenty of film of each other being cocky, constantly making dumb ass jokes, and mocking everyone. I never found myself endeared to them. As they trek along and come across various tribes they to go mysteriously fucking bananas. The heat, the jungle, the images they have seen, the isolation, frustration, it’s anyone’s guess. They engage in various forms of exploitation, setting villages on fire, gang rape, and other things I’ll leave out. At this point they have made enemies out of the cannibals. Not a smooth move stupid fucks, they should have had some coked up guides with them.

GORE:

 

Cannibal Holocaust doesn’t fail to deliver the goods. There is a great deal of graphic violence in the movie. You will see some really gross actual animals death. One word, ‘turtle,’ you have been warned.

The foreign films don’t seem to bother with fake rubber organs, I think these crazy actors are eating real guts. A violent giant stone dildo rape and bashed head. Severed arms, heads, ripped open guts, slimy organs being chewed on, genitals lopped off, skin bit off, you are in the gorezone.

I am always amazed at these jungle movies. The special effects look amazingly good and these guys had to set up these effects in a horrible atmosphere. Yes, that’s an impressively real looking penis copped off, it’s almost more impressive it was done in the amazon jungle.
Don’t worry about gore, it’s plentiful.

SEX:

We get copious male and female full frontal nudity.

 

A voyeuristic soft-core sex scene.

Two rapes, one is adultery punishment and features a giant stone dildo soaked in blood as it rips apart a hairy native puss. A longer gang rape, if you are a sicko and that tickles your pickle.

Music: 

Unfortunately the movie had some 1980s funk, keyboard, or disco type music. This dated the movie. That being said there was a theme song. The theme was chilling and you knew when you heard that tune something disturbing was coming. To me that was perfect use of  theme music.

Directing: 

Fantastic job! This is a horrible environment to shoot a movie in and you would never notice as you watched. All the first half of the movie, the footage of the doctor is professional looking, quality film making.

I am amazed at films that are shot first person. It seems like a truly difficult way to tell a story.  It’s done well here. You won’t have any problem. I found these moments in the movie the most engaging. I didn’t want to look away and miss something.

Final Rating:

Cannibal Holocaust really is a great movie. Holocaust means: any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life. Success was achieved. This is a true horror movie and all fans of the genre should see it, hell, buy a fucking copy. It’s a right of passage.

The theme of this film seems to be ‘look how awful these stone ages fucks are, and yet modern man is no better.’ Everyone is trying to exploit something from this movie. The Doctor, the TV executives, the daring film makers from the second half, the natives in the jungle, even the production company who produced Cannibal Holocaust. Us for watching it for enjoyment, and on and on. A long chain of exploitation. Don’t get depressed it’s all fiction. Except for that fucking turtle, poor bastard.

              It left me dead….

 -Za DiReCtoR

Hell of the Living Dead review by Lawrence S. Talbot

Hell of the living dead(1980)

Over the years, I’ve seen nearly one-hundred Italian horror films and one theory that I have about them is that the more alternate titles one has, the worse the movie is. Released under the titles Virus, Zombie creeping flesh, and Night of the zombies (and probably a zillion more), Hell of the living dead is a prime example of this rule. The film is directed by infamous knock off and exploitation filmmaker, Bruno Mattei and written by Claudio Fraggasso of Troll 2 fame. With these two schlockmeisters at the helm, Hell of the living dead could be considered so bad that it’s good.

Our journey through cheesiness begins with A team of scientists creating “operation sweet death”, a chemical created to solve the world’s population problem. In typical zombie movie fashion, the agent is released and the world becomes infested with the living dead. Later, swat team finds themselves on a top secret mission in Papua New Guinea where they encounter the titular flesh eaters, along with a group of vacationers. Together, they fight for survival and seek to find the cause of the infection.

I’ll begin with the part that everyone is here for-The gore. Luckily for gorehounds, it’s plentiful. However, those looking for realistic depictions of gory mayhem should look elsewhere as the effects are completely laughable. A charming staple of bad Italian horror films is that the filmmakers always seem to be so focused on their gory set pieces that they forget that the human body isn’t made out of silly putty. The zombies themselves are unimpressive though, mostly consisting of men in glistening, unset greasepaint and the few gory ones look like they’ve had their faces dunked in cherry pie. Another important element of  a good-bad movie is the acting. Here it’s completely madcap and perfectly compliments the zany  and utterly stupid characters, who spout a stream of constant one liners, courtesy of Fraggosso’s signature flair for laugh inducing dialog. Unfortunately, the score is composed of pieces stolen from Goblin’s scores for Dawn of the dead, Contamination, and Beyond the darkness. While these scores are fantastic, it’s really distracting if you’ve seen these movies. What keeps this movie from being the perfect laugh-fest is that it is bogged down by a constant use of stock footage, mostly from nature documentaries and mondo shock films. These scenes go on forever and stop the movie dead in it’s tracks, while not adding anything at all to the narrative. So, unless the idea of watching ten minutes of ancient burial rites and villagers eating maggots seems entertaining to you, I’d recommend keeping the fast forward button handy. Overall, I would recommend this movie as something to watch with a group of friends and a few beers. It’s one of my favorite bad movies.

-Lawrence Talbot         

Zombie 2 review by Lawrence S. Talbot

          Zombi 2 

1978 saw the release of the quintessential zombie film, George Romero’s Dawn of the dead. Italian horror maestro Dario Argento served as producer and was given license to create his own cut  of the film in Europe.  It was retitled “Zombi” in Italy and was a massive success. One of the popular trends in Italian filmmaking at the time was churning out often inferior cash-ins or fake sequels to hit films, with the release of “dawn” almost single handedly inspiring the Italian zombie genre and virtually replacing their notorious cannibal movies in the realm of gut munching cinema. An unofficial sequel, Zombi 2 was quickly put into production. Directed by famed director, Lucio Fulci, who had been responsible for some of the great giallo mystery films(Don’t torture a duckling and Lizard in a woman’s skin), directs the film with more integrity than is usually found in these exploitative titles and fashioned what most consider to be his masterpiece. It was released in the United States simply under the title of “Zombie” and became notorious in the U.K as “Zombie flesh eaters”, where it was quickly banned. It is perhaps the greatest of all of the Italian gore epics.

An abandoned ship washes into New York Harbor, where it is investigated by two harbor patrol officers.  Suddenly, a hulking zombie attacks them, ripping the throat out of one officer and being fired upon by the other.

The boat is revealed to belong to the father of  a young woman, Anne Bowles(Tisa Farrow). However, all that she knows about her father had left for the Island of Matool in the Caribbean and that she had not heard from him since. Meanwhile, reporter Peter West(Ian McCulloch) is sent to investigate. The two meet and decide to venture  to Matool to find her father. What follows is a Journey to an island of voodoo superstition and swarms of walking corpses with an appetite for human flesh.

Despite it’s exploitative beginnings, Zombi 2 may be my favorite zombie film. Gianetto De Rossi’s effects far surpass Savini’s work in Dawn of the dead and are genuinely unsettling, especially when you come to the film’s most famous set piece, the infamous “splinter in the eye” sequence. Fulci loads the film with atmosphere, transforming the island of Matool into a dreamlike, nightmare world of fog with a constant tinge of grime that permeates nearly every scene. This makes the film’s gory offerings all the more grotesque, visceral, and dirty. One can almost feel the tropical heat of the island upon viewing the film. The cinematography is downright brilliant and establishes a true sense of dread, despite the characters themselves being virtually paper thin and annoying at times. At times, Fulci’s work recalls the best Spaghetti westerns in style, fully taking advantage of it’s wide screen format, while also being perfectly suited for tighter shots which create a feeling of total claustrophobia. At the end of the day, Zombi 2 is a fine zombie film and one that I would consider essential viewing for anyone who is in love with the genre.

 -Lawrence S. Talbot         

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue review by Lawrence S. Talbot

The living dead at Manchester morgue.

Review by Lawrence S. Talbot

 

Being released under over 15 different titles internationally, The living dead at Manchester morgue (A.K.A: Let sleeping corpses like, Don’t open the window) is often mistakingly considered to be a British film. Actually, it’s a Spanish/Italian production from Spanish filmmaker, Jorge Grau. However, for better or worse, It and films of it’s kind were responsible for bringing  horror out of the Victorian era and away from the classic gothic set pieces that were formerly popular, thus  changing the face of the genre forever. This film is perhaps the best zombie movie to be released in the genre’s humble beginnings between Night of the living dead and Dawn of the dead.

George (Ray Lovelock), a motorcyclist very much of the “Easy Rider” mold, is on his way to an antique shop when his motorcycle is accidentally damaged by a girl named Edna (Cristina Galbó of “what have they done to Solange?” fame) at a local gas station. After demanding a lift to his destination, the two find themselves at a dead end beside a river. While stopping for directions, they witness a large machine in the field and upon inquiring about it’s use, they discover that the machine is used to destroy insects by blasting sonic radiation waves  into the ground.  Edna is soon attacked by a shambling man by the river and it’s eventually revealed that the radiation has brought the dead back to life. The ghouls unintentionally frame the couple for murder and while dodging attacks from the creatures, they are also on the run from a cop who wants to take them in.

The living Dead at Manchester Morgue may be responsible for setting the Italian zombie genre into motion. It might have been Dawn of the Dead’s influence that would later inspire a rash of imitators, but this earlier effort tends to get overlooked. Filled with gruesome gore and chilling set pieces,  the film begins as a slow build but becomes something of unrelenting shock. It’s visually interesting with it’s depiction of the living dead shambling along the British countryside, through crumbling cemeteries, and eventually laying waste to a hospital. Jorge Grau’s direction is first rate and loaded with atmosphere, further enhanced by lurid colors and the occasional gothic trappings. Living dead at Manchester morgue is a classic Zombie film that is filled with tension and a constant sense of dread. Though the gore might be tame by today’s standards, at the time it was unparalleled by anything else.  However, the atmosphere more than makes up for it and the characters are actually worth caring about.  The Film has since become a cult classic and it’s reputation is well earned as It manages to be both scary and incredibly well made. In the end, this is one of the more imaginative horror films of it’s era and one that shouldn’t be overlooked.

-Lawrence S. Talbot