missmonochrome Reviews

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Michael B. Jordan Makes An Imperfect Film A Very Fine One

[20 July 2013]

"Fruitvale Station" is a docudrama based on the true story of Oscar Grant(Michael B. Brown) who was fatally shot by a BART officer after an altercation on the train, on New Years Day 2009. The film opens with some of the camera phone witness footage of his final moments that was splashed across the news/internet at the time.....then moves into a dramatization of the last 24 hours of Oscar's life,to show us the person behind the headline.

Events unfold in a loose chronological order (aside from one brief flashback detailing Oscar's previous legal troubles/incarceration) and characters are introduced purely through his interactions with them, from waking up next to his on again, off again girlfriend, Sophina (Melonie Diaz)to attempting to regain his former job while shopping for his mother's (Octavia Spencer)birthday party, to his conflict about returning to paying the bills by being a minor grade weed dealer to continue to support his young daughter's(Ariana Neal) private school tuition, and his implied hope it provides her a more stable life.

It's a subtle, nuanced means of storytelling, and Michael B. Jordan deserves all of the praise that has been heaped upon him, as his acting is just as nuanced, and he steals the scene right out from under the other actors at almost every turn. The subtle physical comedy in his interactions with his daughter Tatianna, the effortless switch to a white hot anger during a visitor's room jailhouse altercation, the practiced nonchalance mixed with regret at lying to his friends and family about having lost his "regular" job or the wounded bird tenderness that comes after one of his arguments with Sophina.

What keeps this from being a great film (rather than just a very good one) is mostly the inexperience of director Ryan Coogler. The scenes where he deviates from his initially excellent instinct to let the audience drawn their own conclusions from what we've been shown of their interactions are jarring in their near embarrassing ham handedness.

Through the first half of the film, we've gotten an excellent glimpse of both sides of Oscar's struggle, and the complexity of his better instincts versus his survival needs, and that one does not negate the other.

We didn't need the melodramatic redemption story tropes of Oscar attempting to save a dead dog, or melodramatically dumping a large baggie of weed into the sea in a fit of frustration to have empathy for him (Though if "Crash" is any indication, Oscar voters just love beat the audience with a brickbat style storytelling when a film deals with complex intersections of class and race, so he might be wiser than his years suggest).

Coogler also has not yet developed the knack for coaxing the best performances out of his actors. Melonie Diaz's Sophina alternates between the extremes of strident overbaked histrionics and depressingly flat line delivery the whole way through. Tatianna isn't given much to do aside from being appealingly wide eyed, even the usually spot on Octavia Spencer gets a bit scenery chomping cartoonish at times.

Michael Jordan's portrayal of Oscar carries this film home in spite of its flaws in a an amazing breakthrough performance....and the tension as the film reaches nearer to that ill fated train ride and equally wrenching doomed hospital room wait is what gives this film its emotional impact, and illuminates the full scope of Oscar's life and untimely death better than any combination of narrative framing ever could.

All flaws aside,an overall excellent indie film, that rightly deserves a wider release for both treating its audience with the assumed intelligence necessary to place that much faith in the ethos of "show, don't tell" with such heavy subject matter, and an amazing display of talent from its leading man.

Evil Dead (2013)

The Only Evil Here Is That I Just Wasted $15

[5 April 2013]

"The Evil Dead" suffers from the same malaise as many of the modern remakes of grindhouse/B Horror classics("I Spit On Your Grave", "Black Christmas" etc.). Rather than use the extra budget to fully realize the ideas and quirks that made the originals awesome......those buckets of cash are dumped into bloated, overlong run times and buckets of CGI blood sloshed about with a few surround sound sheer volume "jump" moments.

Unfortunately a lot of makes B horror classics special is the inventiveness forced by their sheer lack of budget.Concise runtimes born of necessity often kept things moving at a brisk pace, with out fluff or an excess of pointless padding.

Think about "The Beyond" and its glorious dime store surrealism, "Dead & Buried"'s layers of moody atmosphere, the weird quirk that managed to make people root for "The Human Centipede" to escape its scenery chewing creator....or in the case of "The Evil Dead" the fact that it was a horror film, but had a very good balance of black comedy, and Bruce Campbell had an excellent knack for knowing when to toss in a bit of a wink and a nudge.

Granted, the original "Evil Dead" isn't nearly as camp/slapstick as its sequels...but it did have a sense of spiteful fun amongst all of the gore.

The remake plays dead straight for so long, when it finally attempts a few brief moments of the original's laughs, they fall as flat as the actors' bland performances.

It plods through the original plot pretty faithfully, and completely ignores the fact that the plot wasn't what made the original great. Demonic possession, the haunted cabin in the woods.....those were genre clichés in 1981, and they are more so 30 years later.

Without the spirited ability to make fun of itself......."The Evil Dead" becomes a shadow of its former self, and the few spots where the remake changes essential plot elements only serve to make this ever more of a wad of ABC gum, with about as much flavor.

The protagonists die in the exact order you'd expect them to, and it all comes across as oddly perfunctory, with buckets of bile and a demon with a voice stolen straight from "The Exorcist" part of just another day at the office.

Additionally, for a $14,000,000 film, it's appallingly sloppy in a way that could easily been avoided with that much production budget. I can forgive a $1.50 and a shoestring film for plot holes, continuity errors and characters that are lifeless long before their on screen deaths. When it's a glossy Hollywood production the fact that all of the above happen often isn't homage.....it's just careless and lazy.

The few traditional special effects are ridiculously cheap and poorly done, and were clearly afterthoughts tossed in after the CGI budget line item ran out. Objects are broken, tossed aside or set on fire....only to necromance back to their original state a few frames later.

The modern "Evil Dead" committed the cardinal sin of a horror film. It was utterly boring.

No one at my screening squealed, laughed or got grossed out by the added ultra violence.....we all just munched on our popcorn and let out a collective "meh" as the end credits rolled.

Scream Bloody Murder (1973)

Do Look Out For The One Armed Man- "Scream Bloody Murder" Is A Surprisingly Effective Little Film

[2 January 2013]

Even before the opening credits roll "Scream Bloody Murder" lives up to its title.

Little Matthew(Fred Holbert, in his only film performance) decides he digs his father better dead, and apropos of absolutely nothing, runs him over with a tractor. Even more inexplicably, he manages to mangle his own arm in the process.

Sent away to a mental institution for many years he comes home a teenager with a hook for a hand and an axe to grind(literally) with his mother and new stepfather who soon die painfully for having the unmitigated gall to get married and seem happy about it on the very day he came home from the loony bin.

He then goes on an all out run.... away from the mother of all Oedipus complexes, cutting a bloody swath through everyone he meets, from a young couple giving him a ride out of his small town, to whoever happens to stand in his way.

Meeting painter/hooker with a heart of gold Vera(Leigh Matthews, a two film wonder), things look up a touch for our protagonist. He compliments her art, renames her Daisy,brings her flowers, and kills a john for treating her poorly. If that isn't love, he doesn't know what is.

Desperate to impress and to make good on his claims of wealth and success to fulfill his weird white knight fantasy of "saving" Vera/Daisy, he murders the entire residency of the closest fancy house he can find, kidnaps his lady love and steals from locals to provide her with all the creature comforts you could possibly need while tied to the stolen bed of a psychopath. The resulting action/reaction struggle of Vera/Daisy's survival instincts and Matthew's manias eventually lead to a quirky but extremely satisfying bloody climax, proving the old adage of "where ever you go, there you are".

This film is amateurish on near every level (hammy acting, garish color, jerky cinematography, thin as gossamer plot) and the print that has passed into public domain and an epic ton of multi movie DVD sets is blown out and grainy.

However, "Scream Bloody Murder" succeeds almost in spite of itself. It doesn't bother with overambitious story touches it wouldn't have had the budget for, keeps the plot moving quickly, the body count mounting tidily and the dialog simple. Holbert rips through his campy lines with delightful abandon, and Ms. Matthews manages to be appealing enough to root for despite being little more than a cliché archetype. It isn't trying to teach us moral lessons or have pretensions to high art. It's the mania, madness and mayhem fans of the genre want to see....and while it is often goofy, it is never boring.

By going further than is necessary at every possible turn, the creators of "Scream Bloody Murder" managed to polish their turd into an excellent bloody Valentine, and a forgotten little gem of B film.

6.5 stars

Night Creature (1978)

This "Night Creature" Is Tame As A Housecat

[1 January 2013]

Writer/race car driver/pilot/big game hunter Axel MacGregor(Donald Pleasence) has been restoring temples in Thailand when a spate of local villages are plagued by a violent panther killing and attacking the residents.

Being given every multi hyphenate job title short of superhero, Axel sets off to hunt and kill the animal. Unfortunately, his legendary brass fails him and he ends up physically mauled and severely ego bruised.

Cut to the present, where he has survived the attack with a bad leg and a worse attitude. Axel hires a local team to capture the cat, and bring it back alive to his private island residence. Rather than any of 1,000,000 logical actions...he released the animal onto the island, and plans to stalk and kill it with a rifle loaded with 9 bullets (one for each of the supposed lives a cat has in popular idiom).Public safety is apparently totally less important than repairing the damage to his mythical reputation.

As it so happens, Axel's family decides to make a once in a half decade visit just then. Idle, spoiled daughter Georgia (Jennifer Rhodes), her independent half sister Leslie (a still sexy Nancy Kwan), Georgia's small child Peggy, and Georgia's boy toy of the moment Ross(producer Ross Hagen).

Billed as a horror movie, it's actually an extremely slow moving melodrama. The extremely well trained cat is always shot in slow motion, and there's only one actual attack in between long runs of meandering dialog.

Shrill Georgia ends up the cat's first island victim(due to an ill considered search for Peggy's pet dog), and poor Peggy ends up sitting out in the rain for what seems like 3 days while a weak Ross/Leslie love story is quickly sketched in, Axel's Ahab like obsession and post death of his daughter breakdown chew the scenery (and ample location shots) to pieces, and Ross attempts to save the day while looking to be more and more like Ross Hagen writing a Mary Sue stand in for himself that's far more accomplished than he ever actually was.

Nancy Kwan is giving nothing interesting to work with,Ross Hagen is a smarmy twit, Peggy as a character is nearly forgotten about, all of the native actors are little more than the help.

Donald Pleasence's fits of overacting are the only non narcolepsy inducing moments in an otherwise indifferent film with a an allegory as awful as the final visual transition serving as a dud of an ending.

Most all of the cast had long careers as working actors, and this film is pretty much the nadir for all of them, skip it and watch a National Geographic special instead. All of the gorgeous panther tracking and location shots, far less of the boredom.

Don't Hang Up (1974)

A Few Modest Highlights, But Never Quite Reaches Its Potential

[1 January 2013]

Amanda Post (Susan Bracken) hasn't returned to her (rather palatial) family home in 13 years, as she witnessed her mother die there as a young child. However, she gets a call informing her that her grandmother is near death, and Mandy dutifully goes home again to care for her in her final days.

Upon arrival, she reunites with a host of her small town's odd cast of characters, who all pretty much have their agendas stamped on their foreheads, given the unsubtle writing.

First we've got Dr. Crawther (Jim Harrell), who is AWFULLY fond of pumping poor granny full of extra sedatives, Judge Stemple (Gene Ross) who is the executor of grandma's affairs( and clearly has an interest in real estate ~wink, wink...nudge, nudge~). To round out the bunch of potential cannon fodder, Claude Kearn (Larry O'Dwyer) the nebbishy curator of a museum devoted to the house and its history, attached at the hip to antique dolls, doilies and the like.

Shortly after arriving, Mandy is subject to a series of threatening and increasing perverse phone calls, from someone who has a severely unhealthy fixation with the women of the Post family and the estate.

The first 3/4 of the film is mostly wasted on secondary characters and their subplots, with bonus run time padding from various ineffectual visits from Amanda's doctor boyfriend, Nick(Hugh Feagan).

None of it is sketched deeply enough for you to care, and none of the actors here are talented enough to make something out of the utter nothing they're given. Scares and blood are few, and even the centerpiece phone calls are kind of goofy rather then menacing.

The only bright spot is Amanda remains a good step more feisty and plucky than heroines of the genre, and the additional agency makes you actually root for her in spite of all of the quality issues.

The tension and a nice touch of visual dime store surrealism finally starts building through the last 30 minutes, then drops with a thud into an abrupt and unsatisfying ending, lacking much narrative sense and leaving all of the early plot threads blowing in the breeze.

Why do the Judge and Claude hate each other so much? They're both covering the other's dirty deeds, so why no united front?

What did the doctor get out of drugging the grandmother senseless if the judge gets the house?

How long has Claude been talking to a dummy of Mandy's mum and dressing in drag on the weekends? The dolls and his brief drag turn were a few of the better unsettling visuals/plot points, and both are barely utilized.

Why is Nick so utterly bloody useless? The world may never know.

All in all, a watchable little film with a few treasures amongst its trash pile, but far less interesting than it could have been. The best I can say for it is that it was an early adopter of elements that would later be far better utilized in genre classics like "Black Christmas" or "Don't Answer The Phone"

Death Game (1977)

No Winners In This Boring "Death Game"

[28 December 2012]

What little plot there is focuses on George Manning (Seymour Cassel), a family man left alone on his birthday, as his wife and children are out of town. A pair of hippies,Donna(Colleen Camp) and Jackson (Sondra Locke) get lost in a rainstorm, and knock on his door to dry off and use a phone. He makes the bad call of having a threesome with these two bits of dried out mutton dressed as lamb, they trash his house and hold him hostage with the threat of an accusation of statutory rape, destroying his previously happy home life.

90 minutes of pointlessness ensues. Here's some lowlights:

That godawful title song about good old dad, repeated at least 4 times over the course of the film. It's as if you hired sub par chipmunks impersonators to sing a particularly maudlin greeting card. The rest of the constant and overly loud music selection isn't much better.

That threesome? It's mostly poorly lit close ups of doughy man ass and elbows. I think I may have seen half a nipple.

Menacing? The talentless twosome think terrifying is throwing food, breaking stuff and cackling like a school Halloween play's witch at ear splitting volume. Ketchup (which we are granted a 2 minute close up of while the crappy cackles are turned up past 11 on the soundtrack) has never been an effective object of menace or atmosphere.

The pseudo lesbianism? Barely explained, fully clothed.

Deaths? A delivery boy meets a barely visible death in a fishbowl.

As an avid lover of exploitation cinema, I can not figure out how this film contains so many of the right elements (nudity,lesbianism, hammy acting, dime store surrealism via an over reliance on green and yellow camera gels) to be a trash camp classic, but is so utterly dull.

Instead, all we get is a bored victim, played by an actor who is obviously counting the money he got paid in his head while filming, and two dizzy birds meaning to come across as a low budget Manson family and succeeding only in acting like the most irritating child in your kindergarten class, all tossed food and screechy baby voices. Toss in some terrible music, enough stock location shots to fill the world's worst tourist brochure for San Francisco and you've almost got the picture of what an utter turd this is.

Thankfully, after a night of non terror and a still alive George, the girls (and this film) are put out of their misery by an errant ASPCA truck.

It isn't scary, it isn't funny and that ending makes NO sense, but at least "Death Game" is finally over.

Beyond Atlantis (1973)

A Pimp, A Hustler, A Diver And A Scientist Walk onto an Island....And It Is Lightweight,Trashy, Drive In Fun

[23 December 2012]

A fisherman (the always amusing Vic Diaz) heads to the big city to sell some rare pearls to the local pimp/dealer/criminal of all trades East Eddie(trash cinema king Sid Haig). Smelling more money where that came from, Eddie rounds up a crew for an expedition to the source of the gems. Fence Logan (John Ashley), scuba diver Vic (Patrick Wayne) and a lovely lady scientist Katherine (Lenore Stevens, who is quite beautiful) head off in search of this island for fame, career advancement(Katherine) and a small fortune in pearls (everyone else).

The island is populated by some laughably bug eyed villagers(their "eyes" are masks/headdresses that look like they belong in a primary school Halloween parade) ruled over by the slinky blonde Syrene (Leigh Christian)who spends the entire film amply filling a brief bikini. They are accommodating of the outsiders initially, because they need Syrene to mate with one of them to insure the survival of the fish/half mer people/whatever.

Folks get greedy, natives get suspicious and betrayal, mayhem and general silliness ensues.

The underwater photography is of better quality than you'd expect, both female leads are attractive in skimpy sunwear, John Ashley is kept to a minimum of stinking up the joint, and Sid Haig gives us his usual delightful scene stealing.

In addition, for a PG film, "Beyond Atlantis" manages to hit a lot of exploitation touch points ( abundant skin showing, a Syrene vs. Katherine catfight, some piranha action, explosions, a giggle inducing underwater "mating" scene and Sig Haig's sleazy heavy delivering goofy machismo camp with style).

Lightweight and by no means a classic with a rather unsatisfying ending, "Beyond Atlantis" is still a fun little trifle of the drive in era, and worth watch if you have a few hours to spare.

Beast of the Yellow Night (1971)

I've Seen The Devil......And He Has Man Boobs

[22 December 2012]

This is another of those bottom of a double bill $1.50 exploitation trifles that was given a fun title to match its (usually far superior) main attraction.

In any case Joseph Langdon(John Ashley) is a career criminal, who finds himself dying in the jungle. A mysterious stranger offers to save his rotten life, in exchange for unquestioned servitude. Some marble mouthed whining and a bag of rotten meat later, the deal is sealed.

Langdon comes to as formerly injured businessman Philip Rogers, with a whole new life, a thriving business empire and a buxom blonde wife, Julia (Mary Charlotte Wilcox).

Seems like a pretty sweet deal, until Phillip woodenly marches to the (correct) conclusion that his benefactor is Satan himself (Vic Diaz) and his new eternal mission is to awaken the latent evil in the folks he comes across. Philip can be harmed, but cannot die in the process.

The thing is, Philip/Joseph royally sucks at it. While he's making stroke victim face and spouting platitudes that would make a college kid who just discovered the writing of Dylan Thomas blush, he not only fails at any actual evil.....but makes poor Julia fall in love with him again (perhaps she has a fetish for monotones).

The Devil is indeed in the details, so hydrogenated Satan adds a bonus to the deal. Since his protégé sucks at evil in human form, Philip becomes a mauling monster at night, with a face that looks like it was made out of a Vogon's armpit putty. The silly putty changes color randomly throughout the film from brown, to gray, to green-ish. I'm assuming it depends on which classic movie monster the barely gore producing killings and mannerisms are being stolen from in that instance.

In any case, there's lots of boring speechifying about good and evil, one really awkwardly shot sex scene, and a random as can be blind man who tries to help our tortured "hero" out of the various predicaments a demonic Silly Putty monster can get into on a day to day basis.

Said random blind man then tries to help mush mouth find a place to hide until he can break the Devil's pact, Julia nearly gets murdered, and the kind sightless stranger gets killed for his trouble by police looking for Joseph/Phillip.

However, since monster mash and his monstrous alter ego are still capable of feeling expressionlessly sad over the kind helper's death magically breaks the vow.....and finally our protagonist takes a bullet. Joseph can finally die in peace, and pieces.

Some more psychobabble, and roll end credits.

Director Eddie Romero has produced some enjoyably trashy romps,had obviously had a good handle on the genre given the length of his career, and why he thought an exploitation film was an excellent platform for half baked philosophical and ethical lessons is beyond me.

One star for Vic Diaz being his delightful self and scenery chewing through Satan's silly dialog with wickedly smarmy abandon and half open shirts. Fast forward to his scenes, as they are the best part of the film.

One star for a slightly past her prime Mary Wilcox being quite attractive, pending the degree of camera angle.

The rest is dull as dishwater.

Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

A Moody, Little Watched Gem Of A Horror Film

[22 December 2012]

Poor little Alice(Paula E. Sheppard). Mercurial and withdrawn since her parents divorce, all of the attention is lavished on little sister Karen (a very young Brooke Shields) by their rather glacial, newly single mom,Katherine (Linda Miller).

When Karen is found murdered in church on the day of her first Communion, all eyes on on Alice, who has Karen's veil in hand, and was ready to take her sister's place at the altar when the body was discovered. Soon bodies are piling up around the fractured family...but is Alice a sociopath or just a little girl fractured by both the slights of her upbringing (outright disdain from her aunt, a borderline pedophile landlord, an absent father) and the fact that she knows something regarding the crimes no one else has yet noticed?

This film is a low budget classic of atmosphere. Gore is minimal, but tension is high, with a range of carefully selected music, a muted, faded color palette and a lot of giallo style POV close up reaction shots, and a claustrophobic series of sets, building a slow boil tension that even the sometimes clunky dialog and somewhat stiff acting can't break.

It's an object lesson in how much can be done with quite little in the way of budget, and everything from the Catholic mass imagery to the rain destroying Katherine's careful coif after a brutal stabbing attack on her sister is placed with intent and care. Even when the killer is revealed just below the half way point, it just ups the ante for the remainder of the film My only real quibbles are that some of the character backstory and motivation is sketched quite thinly (particularly that of the killer, and the precise details of the divorce that fractured the family) and that those well crafted mood making moments were not let run just a tad longer, as the stills have a way of burrowing into your head and staying there.

Given that a lot of the more straightforward expository scenes are written a touch awkward and thin, shaving a few seconds off them would have not done any harm, and made the transitions slightly less jarring.

In any case, this film deserves to be remembered for far more than the first screen appearance of Ms. Shields, spent the $5 on Amazon and grab yourself a copy.

For a nice little double feature, screen this with the equally atmosphere filled and under watched "Dead & Buried" (which I've also reviewed) and lament for a moment what thrillers used to be before the current vogue for sheer shock value.

A Serbian Film (2010)

Extremely Well Crafted Nightmare Of A Film, But I Won't Be Watching It Again

[12 November 2012]

Milos(Srđan Todorović) is a former porn star, now living a quiet life with his wife and young son. However, mounting money troubles convince him to take one last job from a mysterious director named Vukmir, that comes with a very strange caveat: Milos will be paid enough to last him the rest of his life, but he must sign the contract with the script sight unseen.

The first half of the film is a slow burn, all muted colors and careful dialog. Srđan Todorović does an excellent job of displaying the conflict in Milos, who relies on a bottle of Jack and the memories of reflected lemonlight and easy money of his porn career to avoid dealing with the very real darkness lurking on the edges of his tranquil life (lack of skills to make the money he needs, Milos' brother's sexual fixation on his beautiful wife, the unraveling of the innocence of young son Peter partially due to some accidental exposure to Milos' porn films).

The offer from Vukmir for an "art film" at first seems like a blessing, one last dance with the devil and Milos can move on to a better life for good.

However, what seems too good to be true, most often is. Milos' star turn is in a glorified snuff film, with themes of pedophilia and rape. Vukmir, who seemed like a benefactor, is a twisted auteur of victimhood and suffering, who shows Milos a horrifying scene of "newborn porn" to explain his philosophy.

A deeply disgusted Milos quits and storms out, but Vukmir has deep government connections, a security detail and we jump cut to a battered, bloody Milos, who remembers nothing of the past 3 days.

Through the second half of the film, it becomes a suffocating nightmare of epic proportions. The soundtrack gets louder, the editing jumpier as Milos recovers bits and chunks of his missing memory. Vukmir and his "doctor" have access to a powerful sexual stimulant, that essentially turns Milos into a human version of "Firefly's" reapers, full of sexual rage and a single minded intent to rape and kill.

An onslaught of broken flashback scenes of Milos in a doped out spree of rape/murder, necrophilia,sodomy, child rape, massacre and mayhem ensues. However, Vukmir is not yet done. To cap off the atrocities he's put Milos through, Vukmir arranges for Milos to rape his own son, while Milos' brother gets to finally act upon his sick fantasies and rape Milos' wife standing beside him(Annotated by Vukmir as a "true Serbian family"). As an enraged Milos breaks the drug trip and begins to beat Vukmir, his guards, and his own brother to death, Vukmir cheers him on, as the extreme violence and revenge are "the true actions of cinema!" Disgusted and broken by the suffering inflicted upon them, Milos and his wife return home battered and bloody, realizing that the only way to end this torture is death. The family embraces one last time, and Milos shoots a bullet through the trio. A new director enters the frame, and instructs guards to one last act of necrophilia, "starting with the little one" before "A Serbian Film" finally fades to black.

Director Srdjan Spasojevic's claims of political allegory fail on every level, and seem little more than a flimsy shield against accusations of "torture porn". I'm inclined to agree that "A Serbian Film" doesn't belong in the company of "Saw" or "Hostel". Both of those films were cartoonish(bad acting, obviously fake CG blood, poorly plotted, shitty dialog), and were far easier not to take remotely seriously for sheer ridiculousness.

"A Serbian Film" is consistently well acted, written, scored and filmed. Not since Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi's "Addio Zio Tom" has quality filmmaking/audio/cinematography been used in the service of an examination of something so amazingly hideous.

I never watched that again either.

The Bunny Game (2011)

Run Rabbit Run! (To The Conclusion Of This Bloated, Overlong Film)

[11 November 2012]

Not much plot to recount here.....dope sick prostitute Bunny attempts to turn her daily tricks with deranged trucker Hog, and the whole situation goes south even more readily than the title character.

Chained up in the back of his semi, she's shaved, tortured, humiliated and dehumanized in a nearly wordless 76 minutes. No character backstory (other than some flashblacks to one of Hog's former victims), no exposition, no editorializing.

While occasionally hitting on a retro stylish Floria Sigismondi style cinematography/editing in the crisp black and white, there's remarkably little to recommend here. There is no characterization(and thus very little reason to become involved or care about the titular character), and it's made clear from the beginning of the film that Bunny has no chance of relief or escape.

Both of the film's non actors(Jeff Renfro and Rodleen Getsic) do a credible job of making this as visceral an experience as possible, with Rodleen deserving a trophy for sheer showbiz trooper......as she actually endured all of the injuries/burns/brands and humiliations depicted in the film. Only the drug use was simulated.

However, first time director Adam Rehmeier wastes this film's strongest card.

The first time you see/hear Bunny's legitimate stricken terrified screams or Hog's maniacal laughter in a maelstrom of industrial music and jump cuts, it's affecting. The fourth time a near identical set of stills/audio and jump cuts appears, it starts being annoying. By the 10th go, it's utterly boring.

Amongst all of the repetition, some of the film's most haunting moments are lost in the din (Hog playing with knives outside the truck while his victim screams, the filmed playback of a crying Bunny from the in truck tripod, Bunny panting and exhausted in the desert sand in bondage restraints and the titular bunny mask).

There's an excellent 35 minute short about in this mess somewhere, buried under a lot of self indulgent performance art pretensions and an overly long run time. It's a waste of the physical endurance test Ms. Getsic endured, which never should have been the most notable thing about this film in the first place, and a flood of press releases and interviews prattling on about rebirth and catharsis do not help.

If you have to explain a concept after a film that's run twice as long as it should have, the director has failed in his mission of getting that subtext across visually.

Women's Prison Massacre (1983)

Put this Film Into Solitary Confinement

[5 February 2006]

"Women's Prison Massacre" is the last of the "Black Emmanuelle" series of films and this time director Joe D'Amato abandons his trademark sleaze for an attempt at an exploitation flick with a plot.

Emmanuelle (Laura Gemser)has gotten a bit too close to exposing a corrupt government official during the course of her investigative journalism, and he has her sent to a vicious women's prison on trumped up charges. 4 dangerous male convicts (including Gemser's real life husband Gabriele Tinti) are transferred there to be held until their trials and manage to create jailbreak mayhem a nasty hostage showdown with police.

I really wanted to like this film, but I just couldn't do it. The plot is a fractured mess, the acting awful and this film is so evasively shot (not enough film or budget for much visual explanation or gore, I guess) that I didn't even know what was supposed to be happening in most of the sleazy scenes (the razor blade castration, horny female convicts ripping one of the guys apart) until I read the DVD liner notes. Also gorgeous Gemser keeps her clothes on the entire time, and the actresses who do disrobe are less than stunning.

3 stars, one for Laura Gemser having a genuine beauty and screen presence that deserves something better than this drivel, one was a whole lot of accidental comedy ("I'll bite your nipples off!" and the blow up doll are the first examples that come to mind), one for Lorraine De Salle sticking it out in a film where she looks extremely uncomfortable in every scene (as if she's ashamed of being in this throwaway, whimpering end to an otherwise fun series).

Beyond the Darkness (1979)

The Best Of Joe D'Amato

[5 February 2006]

"Beyond The Darkness" is easily the best Joe D'Amato film, though his low budget, technical novice style is quite the acquired taste. A young taxidermist, Frank, (Kieran Canter)is distraught by the death of his beloved girlfriend, Anna (Cinzia Monreale, in a dual role as Anna and her still living sister). He doesn't realize this was caused by a voodoo spell cast by his jealous housekeeper (Franca Stoppi) who later wins her way into his good graces by helping him keep Anna's body in the house (which he stole and embalmed himself)and also by helping to dispose of the poor murder victims that are piling up after Frank slowly descends into madness.

D'Amato manages to avoid the pitfalls of most of his films (confusing plots and way past awful dialog)by keeping damn near all of the film silent (aside from a funky little theatrical score by Goblin)and fully showing every bit of shock value gore and mania (the embalming process, disposal of another body by acid bath and butcher knife, a feast fit only for a cannibal at the breakfast table, the Oedipal connection between Frank and Iris the housekeeper).

There's still nothing remarkable here for genre aficionados in terms of plot, effects, gore or perversity, but unlike most of his films it's watchable enough to kill an hour and a half or a video store free rental coupon.

Dead & Buried (1981)

What R rated horror SHOULD Be

[5 February 2006]

"Dead & Buried" is a classic horror "small town with a secret" film, this time concerning a tiny little seaside town called Potter's Bluff. The formerly peaceful community has suddenly been plagued by a series of grisly murders for the town sheriff Dan (James Farentino) to investigate. Creepier still, the murder victims reappear as walking, talking, friendly townsfolk. And what does the eccentric town mortician (Jack Albertson) have to do with it?

This rarely talked about flick, above all else, is a masterpiece of atmosphere...moodily lit, foggy, with a genuine sense of claustrophobia as the horrors seem to be closing in closer and closer to Dan's own home and family, especially the strange new habits his wife (Melody Anderson) has taken up lately.

All of the actors are solid enough, but Jack Albertson steals the show as the eccentric, big band loving Mortician Dobbs. In one of his final performances, he delivers a character whose unsettling realism and reverence for the dead will make you completely forget his also classic turn as the kindly grandpa in "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory". Rather than just play this character, he inhabits his psyche and becomes Dobbs, and it shows.

Everything from the low key bits of airy score music to the often slow and dreamlike pacing of the plot, is dedicated to heightening the viewer sense of disconnection and dread, leading up to a well known sort of "twist" climax, which in this context doesn't seem hackneyed.

My only real problem with this film is that the pacing can sometimes seem jarring, with little connection to scenes preceding it, almost to the point of breaking the well crafted mood. Also, the climax was a bit too abrupt and a few more seconds of that final anguished scene would've done a lot to increase the film's overall impact.

I'd still highly recommend "Dead & Buried", as a solid reminder of what imaginative and well made R rated horror used to be, before the parade of dull remakes and tamed to PG-13 bore fests that now clutter the genre.

House on the Edge of the Park (1980)

A Very Well Made "House"

[5 February 2006]

"House On The Edge Of the Park" concerns Alex ("Last House"'s David A. Hess)shown in the film's opening to be a sociopathic rapist, and his slightly "special" buddy Ricky (Giovanni Radice also in "Cannibal Ferox).

After fixing the car of two high society types,the guys plans to go out that night are ruined, and they invite themselves to the rich couple's "get together instead. After they're mocked for being a bit too reminiscent of the wrong side of the tracks for the couple and their guests (a host of familiar genre faces including Lorraine De Salle), Alex snaps into a murderous, sexually sadistic rage.

Thus begins an exploitation classic, expertly carried by David Hess in what is probably his best performance. The chemistry between himself and Radice seems very natural and though the guest supporting characters are just barely sketched out, they all do well enough not to be a distraction.

Deodato has plenty of his trademark sadism here, from Alex attacking a young virgin (Brigitte Petronio) with a straight razor, forcing two of the female guest to make out, or sexually assaulting the aloof hostess of the party. This situation could've descended into high camp pretty easily, but under Deodato's keen eye, it's all very unsettling to watch.

Another Haunting Riz Orlatani score heightens the dark mood, with another sweet sounding song playing over the most violent of Alex's episodes for an extra touch of disturbing surrealism.

Just when the procession of explicit exploitation set pieces and the claustrophobic setting of a small suburban house begin to wear thin, Deodato delivers a genuinely surprising climax to firmly place the film in the rape/revenge genre.

Overall an overlooked little gem (overshadowed by the mighty "Cannibal Holocaust"), though the film ends far too quickly to answer some of the questions ( about internal nature vs. external beauty and the true nature of being "civilized") raised by it's own bloody climax.

6.5 out of 10

Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eyes (1973)

Another Antonio Margheriti Bore Fest

[30 January 2006]

Giallo are not really known for heavy reliance on plot, but here it is in a nutshell: Lovely schoolgirl Corringa (Jane Birkin), comes home to her ancestral castle to meet with family. Before long, the eccentric collection of guests (crazy lord, hired hooker, doctor who can't keep it in his pants long enough to treat anyone, etc.) is being murdered one by one, with no witnesses except the titular cat.

I'd be able to forgive a lot if the atmosphere was sufficiently creepy, but Margheriti's idea of atmosphere is poor indoor lighting, a rather cuddly looking house pet, red paint "blood", faux Argento killer's P.O.V. shots and a never fully explained attempt at making random shots a gorilla peeking through a doorway a legitimate red herring.

Aside from the random primate, all of the red herrings might as well have glaring neon signs, from the terse dinner conversation about Lord Magrieff's (Hiram Keller)insanity and the resulting argument with the doctor (Anton Diffring),to Suzanne's(Doris Kunstmann) pillow talk with that same doctor, to the untterly inane vampire nonsense (White pancake and a wind machine....scary!).

The acting is B movie competent. Birkin looks prettily wide eyed,Kunstmann stalks about poutily, the only horrid performer is Keller. His vacant eyed, shaggy haired pretty boy comes across as the euro precursor/inspiration of the equally empty eyed Ashton Kutcher.

All in all the plot and the mood are equally forgettable (even the power of random monkeys and the final hackneyed "twist" couldn't save the film) and this movie didn't deserve the Blue Underground treatment or any more than three stars. (Awarded for Orlatani's score,the cool poster art, and the 2 sexy females).

Chalk up another one in the "loss" column for one of cult film's most over rated filmmakers.

The Killer Nun (1979)

An Under Rated Bit Of Smoldering Sexuality and Sacrilige

[29 January 2006]

Many of my fellow reviewers seem to have very poor opinions of this film, but "Killer Nun" does deserve a second look.

What plot there is (loosely based on actual events) concerns Sister Gertrude (a still luscious Anita Ekberg), who was once a respected nun, but is spiraling into madness due to a post brain surgery addiction to morphine.

Before long she's abusing her patients, neglecting her duties, seducing her young room mate Sister Mathieu (Paola Morris)and turning a host of ordinary objects (lamp bases, needles, wads of cotton) into implements of death for anyone who dares stand in her way, while stealing their stuff to support her habit.

As an added bad taste bonus, we also get Sister Gertrude having anonymous sex in an alleyway and admitting a fetish for humiliation and silk stockings during Sapphic trysts.

Unlike most other nunsploitation fare, this movie isn't as explicit as it could be (on the interview on Blue Underground's recent DVD this was revealed as a gesture of respect from director to his star), but it doesn't suffer too much for it, as there is plenty of suggestive and evocative imagery.

Ekberg doesn't show much of her famous curves, but nails a cruel seductress hauteur that does plenty to suggest what the character is capable of. Wheather surveying the residents for her next victim or prowling a café for a sexual conquest, there's something distinctly predatory behind those blue eyes, like a hungry cat looking for something small and helpless to torture.

Her drug mania scenes are also beautifully shot, with visual references both psychedelic and sacrilegious. Several scenes use sly visual references to Catholic Mass as a way of indirectly connecting religious ecstasy and the more base and carnal kind.

There's even a nice, (if somewhat predictable) "twist" ending.

All in all, "Killer Nun" is a stylish slice of delightfully trashy exploitation, worth the hour and a half of your time and 7 stars.

High Tension (2003)

Next Generation Of Slasher

[10 January 2006]

"Haute Tension" (also known as "Switchblade Romance") is the story of Marie and Alexia,who have traveled to Alexia's family farmhouse to prepare for college exams. A mysterious stranger in a truck arrives at the farm and starts picking the family off one by one.

This movie is one big bloody valentine to the slasher sub-genre, and that is both its biggest strength and greatest weakness.

On the good side, the tension mentioned in the title is here in spades, with a excellently paced game of cat and mouse between the menacing truck driver and Marie trying to make it out alive to save the day. There's plenty of well shot gore, effect heightened by the contrast between the violence and the peaceful, pretty little farmhouse in which it occurs. Performances are solid all around, and the team of Cecile De France and Maiwenn carry the film gracefully.

The problem is that director Alexandre Aja made his homage just a bit too flawlessly literal. You know when each "jumpy" moment will come minutes before it does, simply because it is placed in the expected spot in the narrative. The only one that works despite being done to death in other films is the final few seconds of the concluding hospital scene. "Tension" also features the now obligatory "twist" ending(and the plot holes such endings create), though it's nothing savvy fans of the genre wouldn't have figured out by about halfway through.

Overall, a well shot, enjoyable and stylish (though far from groundbreaking) little film. There's nothing much here you haven't seen before, but "High Tension" is still an entertaining hour and a half. 6 stars

Eaten Alive! (1980)

The Comic Relief Of the Cannibal Genre

[3 January 2006]

"Eaten Alive" is yet another gut munching jungle romp, with a few small tweaks to your basic cannibal plot.

A rich southern girl, Sheila (Janet Agren)travels to the jungles of New Guinea (a bit of 8mm film left behind shows footage from rituals in that area) to find her missing sister (Paola Senatore), whom has joined a "pufication sect"/cult led by the junkie Jonas (just in case you couldn't spot the obvious Jonestown reference). To aid her in her search, she hires adventurer for hire/ Vietnam deserter Mark (Robert Kerwin/Richard Bolla).

They find the sect and her sister, but quickly learn all is not as peace and love as it seems, as this is a suicide cult and escaping means crossing a jungle full of...you guessed it...cannibals! Lenzi must've gotten bored and taken up quilting in his off time as the visuals are mostly a patchwork of scenes stolen from other movies, both his own and other directors'("Man From Deep River","Jungle Holocaust").

However anyone who willingly sits down to watch a Lenzi film knows not to expect too much and this is no exception.

The dialog is corny,the lead actress has about as much talent as albinos have tans, and Kerwin is just hamming it up delightfully as one could expect from a porn actor.

However, Jonas (Ivan Rassimov) takes the ham acting cake as the dress wearing, drug using, ritualistic sex practicing cult leader. He really does capture the spirit of the wild eyed junkie prophets who ply their trade on the subway and NYC street corners.

There's plenty of flesh eating gore here, as well as the standard issue of the time animal violence. Several prominent rape scenes, though all of them look too much like cheaply made vintage porn to be disturbing.

Also typical of the sub genre, there's plenty of exposed female flesh in "tribal" costumes and all of the leads at at least somewhat attractive. Cult icon Me Me Lai is particularly easy on the eyes while spending most of the film naked.

Overall it's a classic slice of velveeta and an unintentionally comedic horror romp in assaulting good taste.

I would've rated this equal to Lenzi's other piece of fantastic trash cinema "Cannibal Ferox" but it gets knocked down a peg to 4 stars (1 for Me Me,1 for some really memorable campy dialog, and the other 2 because Robert Kerwin is the king of the cannibal films)due to it's being that damn derivative.

The Black Cat (1981)

Not A Film For Gorehounds, But Not Terrible

[3 January 2006]

Before anyone who hasn't seen this film gets excited that the adaptation of a short story helps Fulci keep hold of his often slippery grasp on the plot, "The Black Cat" has very little to do with Poe's tale until the last 15 or so minutes, and thus is full of the narrative craters B horror fans know and love.

The basic plot of the film is that a Scotland yard detective (David Warbeck) and an American photographer (Mimsy Farmer) investigate a series of "accidents" in a quiet English village. All clues point to an eccentric local medium(Patrick Magee), but the real mystery is the connection between the psychic and the black cat that seems to show up at the scene of each crime.

Lacking the trademark Fulci gore(what there is is very brief), the film focuses on atmosphere. There are a few nice touches (in widescreen format the cat's eye view stalking scenes and the close ups of character's eyes to show emotion work very well), but what keeps the mood from ever really taking off is the cat itself. Given enough screen time to be billed as a full cast member, Fulci never really succeeds in making the animal look possessed or menacing.

In most of its close ups it looks like your average house cat, albeit a bit peeved that you were late with the kibbles and bits. The cheesy snarling sound effects every time it attacks don't help either.

The humans leads are no better (across the board wooden acting), with Magee forced to carry viewer interest in the film by hamming it up as much as possible. Helped along by the overly zealous score, it's amazing that this movie manages not to be as silly as "Touch Of Death".

Overall an amusing trifle, but those looking for gore are better served by just about any other Fulci horror film and those interested in atmosphere are much better served by watching "The Beyond", where the director truly mastered the form.

4.5 stars

Touch of Death (1988 Video)

Lifestyles Of The Rich And Disfigured

[31 December 2005]

"Touch of Death" is the story of Lester Pearson, a down on his luck gambler whom starts seducing wealthy women with various deformities, then killing them off for a prie fixe lunch of human flesh and cash for his horse racing betting debts.

Fulci has an oft tenuous grasp on his plots, but this has to be the most ridiculously over the top entry in the canon. Though the gore is the usual splatter spectacle (the best of which effects wise is probably the scene where the blackmailing vagrant is run over with Lester's car), it's housed in too goofy of a context to be scary.

After several of the least politically correct murder scenes in film (a bearded lady meets death in a microwave, an inexplicably opera singing widow who solos in her sleep is interrupted by being strangled)and some darkly comic body disposal (complete with silly cartoonish theme music), Lester realizes he has a larger problem than lady killing. An imitator is leaving incriminating evidence at the scene of his crimes that points to Lester. Before long, his picture, modus operandi and DNA genetic code (?!) are being broadcast on the nightly news. Will his latest target ("Cannibal Ferox"'s Zora Kerova) find out before it's too late?

The final twist makes no logical sense and shoestring budget shows, but "Touch Of Death" is a mindless guilty pleasure of Fulci poking fun at himself that will entertain his devoted fans.

The Devil's Plaything (1973)

Unfortunately dull

[31 December 2005]

Der Flutch der Schwarzen Schwestern (called by it's UK release title The Devil's Plaything, on my copy)is an experiment in eroto horror that never really takes off.

What plot there is to be had involves the spirit of a vampiric baroness whom has been kept alive by her cult of attendants, so as to possess the body of a young woman and be reborn. Once resurrected, she can continue her bloodlust eternally, provided she drinks the blood of the descendants of her executioners.

The stilted dialogue and even worse acting make the storyline damned hard to follow (worsened by a very poor audio mix and no subtitles).

It's pretty evident the plot is a wash about 15 minutes in, and had there been enough half clothed starlets, all would've been forgiven.

Instead there's random cut scenes of naked girls dancing to bongos(while wearing body paint reminiscent of extras from Laugh In), lots of spell induced heavy breathing in sheer nighties(resembling those shampoo as orgasm Herbal Essences commercials) and a weird incest subplot, with the girls being fairly below par overall (The castle's housekeeper/leader of the cult is probably the worst of the lot, looking like a man in drag in most camera angles) This movie is fence sitting between the two genres, and it's lack of commitment to either is what makes it a lot less interesting than it could've been. There's too little plot to be scary (having actors look about aimlessly is not an effective suspense building tool) and too little quality skin to be sexy.

3 stars. (1 for genuine castle setting, 1 for the god awful shadow puppet special effects in the bat attack scene, 1 for an interesting but wasted premise)

The Candy Snatchers (1973)

They Should've Dug Up Candy And Buried This Film's Negatives Instead

[11 December 2005]

Three down on their luck criminals kidnap little Candy, whom they believe is a diamond heiress, hoping to blackmail her father for a fortune in stones. Their "perfect" plan goes awry when they learn that the diamond dealer is her stepfather, whom doesn't care if Candy dies, as he'll get half of her hefty trust fund. While her kidnappers figure out what to do about this unexpected turn of events, poor Candy is left buried alive in the hills, with nothing but a shallow tube for air. The only witness to all of this is a mute little boy whom lives nearby with his abusive white trash parents. (Given that he audio quality on the subversive cinema DVD is pretty poor and it doesn't have subtitles enabled, having 1 character I didn't have to strain to hear was a bonus.)

It's a smarter than average exploitation premise, and the first half of the film is full of the trashy goodness you'd expect from this type of cinema. Candy spends her screen time tied bondage style, writhing about in a Catholic school girl uniform, and the three kidnappers add campy charm to rather stock characters. Sexy Tiffany Bolling particularly stands out as Jessie, the bitchy ringleader, though the male leads are also pretty competent.

Ben Piazza is also a bright spot, as Candy's utterly unfeeling stepfather.

The revelation of the stepfathers true motivations is where "Snatchers" quickly becomes a mess, as the screen writer seems just as confused as his characters as to what to do next, and the second half of the film is a dull muck of poor attempts at exposing each member of the group's motivations, petty bickering, and a subplot giving us more information about Sean (the mute child, whom bears an uncanny resemblance to "Bob" in Fulci's "House By The Cemetery", and is just as incredibly annoying).

After a few desperate attempts at trying to force the failed crime to work, two of the protagonists die in a ridiculous shoot out with Mr. Phillips (whom was awfully agile despite having an oddly bloodless bullet in his vital organs) and the resolving plot twist is left to annoying little Sean, who somehow finds a gun(where it came from, where he learned to be such a crack shot, or how he snuck it past his maniacal mother is never really explained) and exacts revenge for Candy, unwittingly trapping her to a slow death in the process. His sudden proficiency with a six shooter is further exercised when he kills his abusive mother and that ends what was easily the longest 94 minutes of my natural life.

For all of the hype surrounding the "twist", I expected something as clever as the first half of the film, rather than something that is only surprising due to the sheer idiocy.

3 stars, one for an initially promising premise, one for Piazza and Bolling, one for the "Money is the Root Of All Happiness" theme song (even though I want the 19.99 worth of happiness I spent on this DVD back)

The Last House on the Left (1972)

Ahead Of Its Time And Full Of Good Ideas , But Poorly Executed

[11 December 2005]

Mary and Phyllis are two teenage girls headed into the city for a concert to celebrate Mary's 17th birthday. While attempting to buy some weed, the girls fall into the hands of a group of escaped convicts, whom torture and eventually murder them. Trying to escape from the scene of the crime, they take refuge w/ a local family under false pretenses...that family just happens to be Mary's parents, whom soon learn the awful truth and exact revenge.

Is "Last House" all it's cracked up to be? Yes and no. Though many of its ideas revolutionized modern horror, the film itself is a poorly written and edited, shoddy mess. It also doesn't help that the sound quality on both versions of the film that I've seen (85 minutes and a more widely available 82 minute cut) have such poor audio quality that I had to turn the subtitles on to understand what the characters were saying.

The main characters are little more than sketches, and the pacing is awkward, with comic relief scenes that might otherwise have worked falling flat due to bad timing, with the film being slowly paced overall.

The girls eventual demise is obvious within the first 30 minutes of so, but we do not get to see what exactly will happen to them until far later, being forced to sit through plot padding filler that is little more than more face time for the inept deputy and Mary's parents worrying ineffectually without actually doing much of anything to get to the bottom of their daughter's disappearance.

It became so dull that I found myself paying more attention to the kicky little pieces of background music and the cool retro print decor in the Collingwood home.

Once the main plot finally resumes, the dramatic tension is long dead and the tortures and murders are obviously shot to accommodate the film's shoestring budget. Gore isn't a necessary component to good horror films, but the technique of leaving the gruesome bits mostly to the imagination is a technique that requires much more building of tension than this film was ever capable of to be the least bit effective.

The convicts, moment of remorse is laughable, consisting of little more than sad grimaces and a lack of the giggling that dominated the rest of the sequence, probably the worst bit of acting throughout.

The only spot of any genuine human emoting on the actors part is when the parents finally take revenge for their child, their descent into madness and the resulting anguish when revenge does not bring them the satisfaction they expected. The final frame, a frozen close up on Mr. Collingwood's pained expression, is far more effective than anything that preceded it.

Though "Last House" deserves kudos for it's visionary concepts (comic relief as a means of setting up scares, making the evil protagonists almost likable so that their eventual brutality is all the more devastating), particularly the push of moving the genre away from fantasy monsters like Dracula and the Mummy, to the all too close to home depths of human depravity, it never quite lives up to it's early promise.

Craven gets deserved credit for the influence this would have on later horror, but all of these concepts were done better in other films(Devil's Rejects obviously drew influence from this film, among countless others), including some of the later efforts from Wes himself.

4 stars , better in concept than execution

Cannibal Ferox (1981)

Grindhouse Goodness

[28 November 2005]

"Cannibal Ferox" is the story of a junior anthropologist, whom brings her brother and a friend into the amazonian jungle in an effort to disprove cannibalism. Along the way they meet Mike and Joe, two dealers on the run from the mob, whom have also angered the natives of the jungle. In classic cannibal sub genre style, the home team takes bloody revenge on the entire lot.

Given the other reviews, I was expecting a warmed over copy of "Cannibal Holocaust". Though there are obvious parallels between the two (the theme of the so called "civilized" being the bringers of barbariety, the direction style used in the jungle scenes, gratuitous animal cruelty and small roles for both Richard Bolla and Perry Pirkanen), there's a vast difference in tone between the two films.

While "Cannibal Holocaust" was relentlessly sadistic, "Cannibal Ferox" plays a variation on the theme with it's underlying bits of horror camp.

The main characters' descent into jungle murder and madness is marked by classic horror bad decision making (How does not finding cannibals in one isolated village somehow disprove the entire phenomenon's existence? Why stay and camp in a village that has a decaying corpse hanging in town square? What's sexy about a mud covered coke fiend? The world may never know.), and their gruesome fates are sealed fairly early on, for sheer bold stupidity if nothing else.

Giovanni Radice rips through his role with almost gleeful bug eyed abandon, Zora Kerova is the obligatory slutty blonde whom meets a nasty end, with Lorraine DeSalle playing straight woman to the other leads hamming it up.

"Ferox" has buckets of blood for the gorehounds, but other than the animal scenes, it's not nearly as real looking as "Holocaust". This is not a detraction to the film, but fits into the low rent quirky tone very nicely, further complimented by the incogruous 70's wah wah music used throughout.

Overall, a fine example of grindhouse horror, worth repeated viewing and seven stars. 1 star detracted by the obvious filler New York sub plot (only bright spot is another delightfully trashy performance by Mr. Bolla), 1 star for being a bit slowly paced, 1 star for a bit too much of the heart of "Cannibal Holocaust" being cannibalized by this otherwise enjoyable film for fans of the more extreme horror romps.