Comics 2 - Dylan Dog

One of my favourite comic books when I was at University back in the day, was the first round of Swedish translated Dylan Dog comics. – Well not only then, even now, as I still read the same trash that I used to read back then. I love that Italian Pulpy Stuff.

Be it academic books, fanzines, magazines, reference books, biographies, of just one of the many hundred goofy books on the horror genre, or my own damned writing… – Oh Yeah did I mention that I’m also part of ConstructingHorror.com, a project dedicated to teaching the dramaturgy of horror?

Not to forget the comic books. All those wonderful comic books, my precious treasures… Stuff that my kid’s are going to be getting into pretty soon. And I’m making it my mission to educate my kids in the world of horror. Both of them have watched Scooby Doo (a great entrance to the world of the dark) and Godzilla movies since they where babies. Without letting them watch stuff that’s too advanced for them too early they so far have a wonderful deck of reference to the Universal Monsters, Lovecraft Mythos, Japanese Kaiju Beasts, Mexican Lucha Libre stars, and as the oldest decided that he’s into the music of Michael Jackson I had to show him John Landis, still to this day excellent music video – Wolfman, Zombies, Vincent Price and all – the youngest son, racing to the screen frantically stating that he wants’ to see the zombies too.

A few months ago Dark Horse released the above mammoth bumper book of The Dylan Dog Case Files. If you like horror, especially Italian horror, and in cartoon form, and by chance have missed Dylan Dog before, then this is a book that you really need to pick up! It compiles the seven issues released over the last few years and has some great Mike Mignola (Hellboy) art, out over the many splendid works of the many Italian illustrators who have contributed to the long running comic book

Tiziano Sclavi created Dylan Dog back in the eighties, and it was completely unlike anything I’d seen before. Creepy, disturbing, and riddled with excellent dark humour, and direct references to the horror films of the time period.

You probably know already that Sclavi’s creation is the basis for Michele Soavi’s 1994 movie Dellamorte Dellamore, not really Dylan Dog, but still the similarities are to obvious to be ignored, and the fact that they got the inspiration for Dylan, English actor Rupert Everett, must have made Scavli and Soavi make high fives all day.

So if you haven’t read it yet I highly recommend it, a book that the seven year old kid and his forty year old dad call The Scary Zombie book, can’t be bad can it.

Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein

Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein
Original Title: Dracula contra Frankenstein
Directed by: Jesus Franco
Spain / France, 1972
Horror/EuroGoth, 88min
Distributed by: Midnight Video

It really is Francomania here right now, I find myself being drawn back to the films I saw years ago, and it really is like reuniting with an old friend. Movies that I once saw too many of in one go and perhaps didn't appreciate as much as I should have. But boy am I enjoying them this time round. At one point I actually started having regrets that I let all those damned VHS tapes go to the rewinding grounds in the sky (I donated them to Monkey Beach actually). I’ve taken it so far that I’m actually listening to Jess Franco and his B-Band on my iPod on the way to and from work! But it's good stuff, and a nice change from the Piero Umilliani & Chet Baker disc I've been playing too long.

Once can’t argue that Franco really has a fascinating spectrum to his catalogue. Not only the cheesy sleazy stuff, the horror flicks, the strange drama stuff, the sexy comedies, the sinister W.I.P. films, the jungle film, but be he’s also been a healthy contributor to the genre that somewhat defines European horror, the niche I refer to as EuroGoth.

I feel that it’s kind of unfair to give Franco’s Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein a hard time, because you can’t really go into a Franco film wanting to experience hardened emotions of fear, shock and dramaturgical fulfilment. It doesn’t work that way, and I can’t really believe the amount of trash that has been written about his movies when you start to poke around the net and even in the books and magazines of say ten-fifteen years back. They all complain about the same thing. Dracula looks silly, Frankenstein’s make up is tacky, and the Wolfman is ridiculous... you get the message.

You have to take it for what it is, and this is one of the keys to understanding his movies. There are a set of themes and motifs that Franco keeps returning too, and until you know these, you won’t get it. The mad scientist trying to recreate the face of his loved one, the widower seeking revenge for the death of her beloved partner, the seductive - but complex female and so on. Then there's the returning characters like the Red Lip Detectives, The Countess, Dr. Orloff, Al Pereira, the Jazz club/Cabaret scenes etc. etc to name a few. Before you have a knowledge or insight into these motifs, characters and traits, you probably won’t enjoy the show, or get the full magnitude of their intent.

A majority of criticism against Franco is that he constantly remakes the same film over and over again – The Awful Dr. Orloff 1962 has been remade with the same base theme several times up to Faceless 1987. The avenging lover was remade several times as Miss Muerte 1966 and as She Killed in Ecstasy 1971 and so on. You get the point. Now this shouldn’t’ really become a foundation for debate, as people rarely criticise, say Picasso for painting several similar themed paintings over and over again, you rarely criticise your favourite band for sounding as they did on the last couple of albums, you rarely criticise Hammer Studios for using the same casts and location over and over again, you rarely criticize your favourite TV show for reusing the same formula over and over again! It’s in our nature, we want safety, even if it means repetition and don’t want to be challenged with change. So please don’t waste your time writing "Yet another tiresome piece of crap from Franco…" over and over again. And I’m not telling you that you aren’t entitled to your opinion, it’s just that that exasperating opening or ending line just proves your ignorance - You didn't get it.

It’s the same principle when watching a Franco film. He goes back, or returns to the initial idea and sees how he can recreate the piece from a different perspective - be it with new actors, a new producer and Production Company, or a new location and sets. One could say a new budget, but Franco seldom received more money for his next film, than he had for the previous. I can relate to this from my line of work. Great the show rated wonderfully, now let’s get to work with the second season – but there’s never a penny more put n the kitty, as we managed so grand the first time around, instead let’s see what we can make cheaper. It sucks, and it definitely takes the edge off creativity. You can see the initial ideas and line of thought in The Awful Dr. Orloff, and then watch how he tweaks and refines the source up to Faceless – which still stands as the better of the two, even though The Awful Dr. Orloff was the movie that gave him his breakthrough and got Orson Welles interested in the Jazz man from Madrid.

So if you have seen a Franco film and didn’t find anything that you liked, enjoyed or actually had a positive experience from and thought that it was the largest pile of garbage you have ever seen, then back the hell off and don’t go back there. These films are obviously not for you! You wouldn’t go back to eat a meal at a restaurant you didn’t enjoy, just to see if they got any better at the same meal would you?

With that out of my system, let’s get down to work with Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein. Well what can one say? Sure it is a slow movie, sure the creatures do look kind of dorky, but that’s what special effects on a minimal budget looked like in those days. Remember that the zombies in Romero’s landmark Dawn of the Dead 1978 still look pasty however much we want them to look scary as hell in our memory of the film.

Basically the movie sees Doctor Frankenstein [Dennis Price] bring back his monster [Fernando Bilbao] with the aid of his slave Morpho [Luis Barboo – see, that Morpho! Remember Dr. Orloff’s handyman from The Awful Dr. Orloff? It’s Morpho – Frankenstein is Dr. Orloff in the Franco universe. It all comes together when you know what to look for doesn’t it!). With the monster resurrected they plan to enslave Dracula [Howard Vernon], who has been put out of action by the Vampire Hunter Dr. Jonathan Seward [Alberto Dalbés], and create an army of the undead.

One by one the women of the village fall victims to Dracula’s bite and become part of Dr. Frankenstein’s army. Just like the primary cast that consists of regular Franco actors who all had equivalent parts in the counterpart film The Curse of Frankenstein (La maldición de Frankenstein) shot at the same time – the female victims are also frequent Franco ladies, Britt Nichols, Geneviève Robert, Eduarda Pimenta and Josyane Gibert.

After sustaining a vampire bite – strangely missing from the movie – Steward becomes almost apathetic, while he is nursed back to health by the village Gypsy [Geneviève Robert]. She becomes so outraged by the plan and procedure that Frankenstein and Dracula have taken that she curses them all and calls upon the Wolfman [Brandy – your guess is as good as mine, he, or she, never acted again!] to put a stop to their fiendish plans.

Needless to say a final battle is in store and the whole show goes down with a bang. Even if it’s not much of a bang, perhaps one could say it’s more of a frizzle, but I’ll get back to that in a short while.

I don’t want to say that Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein is a homage to the Universal Horror’s, or a nod to the Hammer flicks, because I don’t feel that it is. I’m certain that somewhere along the lines, producers – the guys with the small bag of cash, that call the shots – told Franco that they liked the Hammer films, which where, and had been successful in the late sixties, early seventies, but now heading downhill at full speed. The same year as Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein, Hammer produced the appalling Dracula A.D. 1972, directed by Alan Gibson, which set the Count in a modern London. An idea that I’m certain Franco would have used if he were to copy the Hammer films - where better to locate the Gothic characters if not sizzling Spain. Just imagine Dr. Frankenstein and The Count checking out sexy chicks at a hot, vibrant Jazz club. It almost happens, but instead Estela [Gibert] performs a French song and can-can like dance in its place. Again a recurrent scene in Franco's movies, is the light going on yet?

So instead I look at the film as Franco’s interpretation of Universal and Hammer, as seen through his frequent used themes, inside a Franco universe, but with the use of their iconic characters. Sure an influence, but not a homage. And to his defence, the sets in this movie are astonishing, it’s probably some of the best laboratory set design [by Antonio de Cabo – his only one] that ever was made during this period of low budget cinema. Also, despite a pretty diligent use of the zoom, this movie has some awesome imagery and wonderful compositions thanks to cinematographer José Climent, and knowing that Franco wasn’t a stranger to getting behind the camera himself, I’m sure that he had a decent participation in the images. Some of the shots easily beat the Hammer films atmosphere and visuals of the same period in time.

Sure the fake bats obviously hanging off rods just out of frame are silly, but then again, the Hammer movies never managed to pull this one off either, their bats are still just a stuffed bat hanging from a rod just out of frame, so that’s just fine by me. On the other side, Franco and editor María Luisa Soriano [who worked on many of Franco’s films and on Paul Naschy films crash cuts from the real bat – yeah, real bat, because in the close ups, it’s a real bat held up by the wings for the valuable shot – to the actor or actress looming over their victim with such efficiency that the illusion actually works!

The movie has a magnificent score by Bruno Nicolai and Daniel White, who both scored many great Franco movies, and the soundtrack for Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein isn’t too far away from James Bernard’s music for all those Hammer films. But still keeping that wonderful style that we love from those great movie soundtracks they composed for Franco.

And for the narrative, well I’ve never been a fan of compilations of iconic monsters bashing it all out, they all belong in their own narrative space and those films don’t really get me excited at all – not even Ishirô Honda’s King Kong vs. Godzilla 1962.

But that isn’t what I feel this movie is about. In some strange way I feel that there’s a cunning Franco critique towards the Universal monsters, and the Hammer films hidden away in the movie. Because, and I love the movie for this reason; they are all completely incompetent. Yes completely incompetent! Dr. Frankenstein’s plan fails miserably, Seward (the Van Helsing character of the flick) is a utterly worthless vampire hunter, and spends the last half of the film a vampire bitten drone, the Vampire maidens lay comatose in their coffins, all but one with an apparent own agenda as she bites and kills Morpho, Frankenstein’s monster more or less takes his own life, hiding away in his electrical chamber when the push comes to shove, and the Werewolf doesn’t really have any impact at all, but getting tossed around by Frankenstein’s Monster, and finally the angry mob of villagers, lead on by Seward, complete with pitchforks and burning torches arrive at the castle after the Doctor has killed Dracula, the vampires and scampered off towards new experiments in fear, leaving Seward to wave his crucifix completely pointlessly as the movie comes to an end...

So there you go, the Universal monsters, reinvented by the Hammer Studios are completely incompetent in the wonderful world of Jesus Franco.

Image:

2.35 Widescreen

Audio:

English dub, Mono

Extras:

Original Trailer for Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein and Franco's Jack the Ripper 1976. Unfortunately Midnight Video doesn’t produce their exclusive Collector Series anymore, but the movie can still be obtained on DVD-R from them and is still the most superior version of the film available.

I can't locate a trailer, but instead I leave you with this and ask the question: What happened, and where did it go?

Sweden, Heaven and Hell - Revisisted!

Not only did Mr. Nylén - editor of the only Swedish film magazine worth reading - supply me with my first VHS copy of this grand movie back in the mid nineties, he also used to have a splendid poster for the film on the wall of his flat. But even better it's apparently his childhood bike that's seen in the shot below.

Sweden, Heaven and Hell

Sweden Heaven and Hell
Original title: Svezia, inferno e paradiso
Directed by : Luigi Scattini
Italy, 1968
Mondo/documentary, 85min
Distributed by: Klubb Super8

The wild and weird world of Mondo! You can’t stand unaffected by this fascinating odd niche of the Italian Genre Cinema, nor it’s offspring as these contain some of the most disturbing movies ever to have been made.

The Mondo genre is often quoted as starting with Paolo Cavara and Gualtiero Jacopetti’s Mondo Cane 1962. Actually there where “mondo-ish” movies made before Mondo Cane, movies like Luigi Vanzi’s World By Night and Alessandro Blasetti’s Europe by Night both 1959, but these where more focused on nightlife and strange club acts and all round fun. Although Jacopetti did script them, and this eclectic jumble of almost random footage and driving voice over narrative would soon play right into his hands.

Mondo Cane with it’s showcasing of the wild and weird world outside of Italy in an almost Ripley’s Believe it or Not style documentary approach – or shockumentary as they also are known as - created quite a stir when it was released, it was nominated for the Palm D’or at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and Riz Ortolani’s splendid track “More” was nominated for an Oscar for best music, original score at the 1964 Academy Awards. This unleashed a floodgate of Mondo themed movies, Jacopetti & Franco E Prosperi’s Mondo Cane 2, Franco de Feo’s Mondo Nudo, Gianni Proja’s Ecco all of them 1963, Roberto Bianchi Montero’s Mondo Balordo 1964 and even the American entries Mondo Freudo and Mondo Bizzaro, both 1966 directed by Lee Frost, and Russ Meyer’s Mondo Topless 1966 with a title that says it all. Most of them held a fair share of tantalising sexploitation, a humorous approach but also explored the downsides of life in other places and situations.

But at the late sixties the Mondo movie started taking two definitive paths, one focusing more on the sex and kinky scene, and the other on the a more vicious and violent as movies like Jacopetti & Prosperi's Africa Addio 1969, Antonio Climati and Mario Mora's Savage Man Savage Beast 1975 showed authentic deaths both in the animal kingdom and humans being killed by beasts. These traits also worked their way into the obscure cannibal genre too, where many animals where killed for pointless scenes in the movies narrative. Although many of the Mondo movies later where revealed to be staged situations, the tone had still been set and there was worse to come.

Pushing the boundaries further flicks like Rolf Olsen’s Shocking Asia 1976, Climati & Mora’s Sweet and Savage 1983, and Romano Vanderbes' This is America 1977 went even further, and merely consisted of onscreen deaths and violence almost wallowing in gruesome footage.

In 1979 the Japanese financed US production Faces of Death, directed by John Alan Schwartz became one of the most notorious Mondo movies of all time. And even though it like many Mondo movies before consisted mainly of fake footage acted out for the cameras, and a terrible acting by Michael Carr as Dr. Francis B. Gröss, our narrator and guide though the movie, the film still packed a ferocious punch. But a second Japanese financed US production finally pushed the genre over the limit. Sheldon Renan’s The Killing of America 1982 consisted almost completely of authentic footage of death and carnage, often caught by news cameras and un-expecting witnesses. It’s also one of the first movies to feature the infamous Zapruder Film which graphically shows the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Ironically Ruggero Deodato’s movie Cannibal Holocaust 1980 is not only one of the most infamous cannibal films, but also a stern critique towards the Mondo genre where directors staged and arranged death and execution scenes without interfering. In some ironic way the innovators had finally had enough!

With this last step taken, the gates of hell sprung open, and cheap compilations like the sequels to the Faces of Death series, The German Mondo Cane 4-6 films compiled by Uwe Schier, and abominations like the Traces of Death films, and the Faces of Gore series all focused merely on the of the horrors of life and death started turning up all over the place. Just like those god awful home video shows with stupid people doing stupid shit, the Mondo movie devolved into a cesspool of necrophilic depravity lacking all of the tongue in cheek humour of it’s predecessors.

But not all Mondo are about carnage and disaster situations. Even though the later movies are synonymous with onscreen deaths the early movies held a fantastic documentary style and even though they said exactly what ever they wanted over the random images shown, they had heart and humour to their story.

Like Luigi Scattini’s fantastic Sweden Heaven and Hell, a Mondo study of the sinful living of the Swedes during the sixties. Packed with lusty teens, naked women, violent biker gangs roaming the countryside, and the growing problem of the open alcohol and drug market, it’s no wonder that so many people used to think that Sweden and Swedes where the most open-minded and liberated people on the planet.

Young women who receive sexual education, only to later spend their weekends on the ”Love Boat” practicing what they learned in class. The gangs of Raggare roaming and raping their way through the teenage women of Stockholm (And yes that’s Marie Liljedahl having her clothes torn off by the bikers), turning the young lasses into homosexuals. All Swedish women sunbathe naked! The enforcers of law who spend their day’s making sure people of Stockholm obey the rules, only to pose naked for the photographers camera at night – the double morale of the women of Sweden, as even the most respected citizens indulge in dirty smutty late night actives. The kids, left at day care and later moved to a small community outside of Stockholm, where Dr Johnson cares for the children that all fell into a void of depravity and perversion before he saved them… It’s all here, and it’s a riot, as Scattini just randomly makes whatever claims he wants in his portrayal of the strange country up north. Although we did have sex education with very explicit images at school I never actually found those chicks wanting to do our homework in the practical manner.

Once sequence shows a sex shop on Birger Jarlsgatan – dead in the centre of Stockholm – where men and women gather at the Grotto of Porn, a library dedicated to porn. And one of the treats the filmmakers relish on, or rather points out as a vile obscenity, are the 7” records of authentic sounds of intercourse being sold – Pornophone! Remember Umberto Lenzi’s Oasis of Fear 1971, well that’s the same sort of records that Ornella Mutti and Ray Lovelock where flogging before they got into that first bout of trouble that forced them into hiding.

Scattini bars no holds as they twist facts and fiction into the melting pot of low morale, sexual cravings and perversion. No matter how naive and fake the movie is it is a hilarious movie. I have a weak spot for old photographs and footage of Stockholm of the past. I really love this city, and it’s still one of the most beautiful capitals in Europe, and seeing all these fantastic places and locations, but from Scattini’s warped vision makes me laugh and enjoy living in Stockholm even more.

I adore the short sequence where upper class girl Ulla holds all the power of the family house. As she sits making out with her boyfriend, her parents just sit watching, with the constant threat of Ulla actually deciding to marry her boyfriend which forces the parents to give her the house and move to the old folks home instead! After the young couple have engaged in a bout of pre marital sex – Ulla’s mom serves them coffee and sandwiches to keep Ulla happy! Holy smoke where did Scattini come up with these ideas, it’s uproarious.

On the other side, watching this movie some forty years later, the movie plays more as a parody on Swedish society. The warped discourse and suggestive voice over can easily be laughed at today as in some occasions their bleak portrayal is what we make fun of ourselves today. The cynicism of the young couple now leaving their maternal home only to spend a fortune an a small cramped inner city flat. The car owner beating up the guy trying to steal his car and ends up being the one punished instead – Violence is not accepted, but the youths lust for life is defended. It’s all stuff that still actually happens, victims being the ones punished, and the tiny apartments in the city costing a fortune for a few square metres. The problem with the high suicide rates… Something that in later years has proved to be based on the fact that Sweden are so anal about statistics and numbers that they where the only country with more or less accurate figures – hence the high numbers, no other country documented in the strict way of the Swedes.

But perhaps even more entertaining than the movie and its pseudo documentary narrative is the fantastic soundtrack by Piero Umiliani. It’s a fantastic soundtrack that definitely cheers up the most sombre state of mind, Not only does it contain the song that the Muppets made theirs ”mah na mah na” but also the lead theme; I tried to warn you… perhaps a prophetic tune to the state that the Mondo genre would end up in.

Luigi Scattini’s Sweden Heaven and Hell - It’s rude, it’s crude, it’s cheesy, it’s sleazy and it’s completely bogus of course, but it is the most entertaining Mondo movie ever made about Sweden!

Image:

Full frame 4:3

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono, English, Italian or Spanish Dub available, with optional Swedish Subtitles.

Extras:

If you like Swedish skin flicks and corny comedies then the extras will please you as there’s a total of fourteen wonderful original trailers to sit though on the disc. There’s also a gallery of movie stills, marketing materials, and international movie posters.

And don't download it Buy it!

Bloody Moon

Bloody Moon
Original Title: Die Säges des Todes
Directed by: Jesus Franco
West Germany, 1981
Horror, 82min
Distributed by: European Shock DVD

Once again one of “Franco’s finest movies” finds it’s way onto my screen after being neglected for the last ten-fifteen years. Possibly it’s all part of the build up to receiving and watching the latest creation, Paula-Paula just released, or perhaps it’s just part of that phenomenon that is Franco. When you watch one of his films, you get the urge to watch a second, and then a third and so on… But for a change this one is more than just that recurrent DVD artwork quote, and is actually pretty darned good and still holds up for some light non-complicated entertainment. Bloody Moon is a fine example of how the US slasher films, once inspired by Euro thrillers come full circle and end up being made in the same places and directors that inspired them to start with.

During the end of the seventies and early eighties American slasher movies dominated the horror scene. It was all about masked murderers stalking and slaying young boys and girls as they explored the boundaries of innocence. If you smoked dope, had sex or engaged in drinking with your mates, there was bound to be a serial killer with some agenda rooted in his (or her) childhood lurking in the shadows just waiting for the right moment to leap out and kill them with a varied assortment of sharp objects. With it’s roots in the real life crimes of US serial killers like Ed Gein (as you know the inspiration for Robert Bloch’s Psycho later turned into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock), and war atrocities seen in the news reporting’s out of Vietnam movies like Tobe Hooper’s Texas ChainSaw Massacre 1974 and Bob Clark’s Black Christmas 1975, started using realistic violence and a raw, in your face psychology to bring an edge to the youths in peril. Later movies like John Carpenter’s Halloween 1978 and Sean Cunningham’s Friday the 13th 1979 refined the genre and set the traits of the genre upon solid ground. It should be noted that the slasher genre also is heavily indebted to the Italian Giallo, a fact that many of the directors acknowledge, even if US genre historians prefer to think they invented the genre, just like they think they invented Punk. Anyhow, the traits used in generic mainstream slasher flicks are still to this day the same as the movies that defined the genre thirty years ago.

Needless to say where there’s a buck to be made, producers will go, and getting in on the latest craze several European movie companies went with the flow. Producer Wolf C. Hartwig possibly best know for the Schulmädchen-Report films had at the time the fascinating director Jesus Franco on his pay roll. Franco had already directed a number of movies for Hartwig’s company – as I’ve pointed out earlier, Franco in his love for making movies frequently set up shop with a wide range of producers and production companies end churned out a number of flicks for each company before moving on to new exhilarating ventures with new companies and ambitious producers. Among the movies Franco produced for Lisa Film you find Mondo Cannibale and Sexo Canibal both 1980 and Sadomania, Linda and Bloody Moon all 1981.

Wanting to get in on the action producer Hartwig assigned Franco with Bloody Moon (the only movie they worked on together) a movie written by Erich Tomek (as Rayo Casablanca) who also co-wrote the screenplay to Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination 1979 (with Cozzi using his pseudonym Lewis Coates) and later Franco’s sexy comedy thriller Linda 1981. Bringing some of his trade marks to the mixed bag, Franco set out to make one of his most infamous movies, and that’s not a DVD box quote, but a fact. Bloody Moon which contains graphic murders, a sinister plot, a small tad of eroticism, well more nudity than eroticism to be honest, and above all one scene of real animal death was slammed by the UK censors and nailed by the balls to the infamous Video Nasty list. And anything that is on that list has been seen by the fans and has a cult following.

In a nutshell Bloody Moon works as a mix of the good old tale of fortune and deception – nothing is as strong a motivator as greed, even when it comes to murder - and the most notorious of the US slasher flicks - Halloween and Friday the 13th.

The opening scene takes place at a school of sorts; chicks shake their asses, dude’s flirt with them and pick up random lovers as the disco beat of Gerard Heinz blares out over the area. In the shadows misfit Miguel [Alexander Waechter – Miguel the Spanish name for Michael, wink, wink] lurks. Miguel dons a giant facial scar, which obviously makes him completely repulsive to the girls at the pool. But after hiding his face behind a Mickey Mouse mask, giving cinematographer Juan Soler a chance to use the classic P.O.V. through the mask shot of Halloween, Miguel manages to pick up one of the dancers who mistakes him for some other don Juan. But as soon as they hit the sack and she delivers some really take me take me tacky dialogue the mask comes off and as she screams with repulsion and fear, Miguel snaps and stabs her repeatedly in the gut with a pair of scissors.

Five years later Miguel is released from a mental institute, the Doctor played by Franco, into the custody of his sister Manuela [Nadja Gerganoff who is a bleak substitute for a part that I feel should have been played by Lina Romay every time I see this film. But Gerganoff get’s the job done and she was probably connected to the producer who wanted her in the flick. It’s happened before and it will happen again]. The two of them take the train to the estate owned by their Aunt, Countess Maria [Maria Rubio], a Franco trait – as he loves putting Countesses in valuable key positions. On the way there the leading lady of the film Angela [Olivia Pascal – who had a small part in Valerian Borowczyk’s nunploitation epic Behind Convent Walls 1978 and several other German soft-core productions] is introduced and the first indicator that Miguel may not be completely over his urge to murder gorgeous young women is planted. The estate - obviously the one from the pre-title sequence – has been reopened to serve as a language school for young women, and to run the project Manuela’s boyfriend Alvaro [Christoph Moosbrugger] has been put in charge. There’s an obvious grudge between Manuela and the Countess, who later confides to suave Alvaro that Manuela is only after her fortune, and holds no interest in the school at all.

After a quick montage of the school in action, i.e. chicks repeating what they hear on tapes while they learn Spanish under the guidance of Alvaro, the supporting cast is introduced. The girl gang consisting of Eva [Ann-Beate Engelke], Laura [Corina Gillwald] and Inga [Jasmine Losensky] all go to classes and in between classes spend their time sunbathing semi nude and flirting with the tennis teacher and all round janitor of the school Antonio [Peter Exacoustos].

Angela finally arrives at the school and tells the rest of the gang about her encounter on the train, to which Inga tells them the scary tale of the terrible murder that took place at the school some years ago - Yes the threads start to come together here, as she’s obviously referring to Miguel’s murder of that disco chic in the opening. While Inga tells her spooky tale, Miguel obviously lingers in the background. Minutes later the girls have all changed their clothes, and put on their best disco clubbing kits and head off over to the late night dance parlour located on the premises. Once again there’s some crappy dancing to Gerard Heinz disco version of the lead theme, the internal intrigue between the girls all trying to bed Antonio get’s wound up and finally Angela takes off for an early night in bed. Pretty soon there’s a knock at her door, and in comes Eva who wants’ to borrow a sweater so that she can stay warm on the boat ride she’s going to take with some lads she’s met at the disco after Angela left. Later in the film the minimal clothes budget is apparent when Inga wears the same sweater that Inga rejects – it’s a small detail, but repeated viewing of these movies ends up with you spotting the finer details. As Inga undresses the figure that has been lurking in the dark of Angela’s room steps forth and rams a knife through her back leaving the blade protruding out of her nipple. Now that’s something you don’t see every day! Angela screams bloody murder and flees the scene. Obviously there’s no trace of the body and no one believes her tale of death and murder.

With the initial kill behind us the movie takes off as the girls are one by one stalked and murdered, with the masked murderer – who I see more to be influenced by the killer in Sergio Martino’s Torso 1973, than the US slashers – staying one step ahead of the audience and hidden away in the safety of the off screen space, only coming into shot with the weapons of choice. And the weapons and murders come in all shapes and sizes. The marble saw decapitation is still a very gruesome scene and one of the most memorable set pieces of the film. Last year I was working on a show where we where planning a segment on children in horror and my producer claimed that only Tim Burton ever showed children dying on screen – I obviously objected and referred to EuroHorror of the eighties. But I wish that I had remembered Bloody Moon at the time, because the child who tries to save Eva from the gigantic industrial saw, suffers a terrible punishment for interfering.

As the movie closes in on climax time, shit has hit the fan, the killer has been exposed, surprisingly not the one that all the deceptive editing has insinuated, and the great final moment twist – the one that explains the motifs and double crossing of the murder plot – have done their part, its safe to say that Franco actually pulled this one off. And that’s without me even mentioning the incestuous relationship between Miguel and Manuela. It is an excellent movie, that plays right out of the slasher mould, without getting entangled in a complicated plot. An excellent genre piece that always manages to entertain. I think it’s fair to say that this one together with Faceless 1987 – a more typical Franco fare – are among the better straight forward horror flicks that Franco directed during the eighties.

I don’t mean to criticize Gerard Heinz scores to the movie, because it is quite interesting to tell the truth. It has a very wide variety of styles that make up the soundtrack, ranging from the Ennio Morricone-esque tunes to a very Dave Gilmore-Pink Floydish guitar track to the vibrant dance pop track that is way to over used in the film much like in Franco’s Faceless where Romano Musumarra’s George Michael soundalike popsong is heard when you least expect it. Otherwise the score is fitting, and a great complement to the movie’s tone, just like the tracks Heinz supplied for all the soft-core comedies he scored previously. Although the pop part of the soundtrack is what has aged the most and these scenes do have an almost stale flavour to them.

Once again it’s a satisfying encounter with the wild, wild world of the great Jesus Franco as Bloody Moon returns to it’s place in the box labelled EURO HORROR – SPAIN in my bookshelves, and it’s hard not to dip my hand in and try a pot luck gamble to see what other Franco movie I pull out. It’s always fond reunion with a director, who may not have made the best movies of the world, but he loves making them, and we love watching them.

All I want to do is take a few days of work and wait for the sound that the post makes when it slips through the mail slot, falls to the hall floor and then the silence of anticipation as I pick up the Paula-Paula disc, gently pry open the sealed envelope, delicately cut the plastic wrap and snap that disc out of the case and place it on the tray of my DVD player, and then sit down as Jesus Franco’s latest piece of wild and crazy cinema unfolds before my eyes.

Image:

Full frame presentation 4:3

Audio:

Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0. English Dub with optional Dutch subtitles

Extras:

I hate when films I like are released with a few squirts just chucked in to fill out the disc. It’s the same kind of disappointment I used to get when I listen to the later Frank Zappa albums, too much filler and not enough killer. There’s so many of us out here on the net that are writing about these movies, and even fifteen years ago when DVD started to hit the market, there was a wide range of writers covering these movies. Why not just contact one or more of us and fill out that disc with out insight and writings on the film? It would be cheap, and wouldn’t take any space worth complaining about on the disc. Anyhow, European Shock have only added the trailers for Bloody Moon and Linda, and a cheesy slide show set to that terrible disco track again.

Lost boxes of stuff... #2

...as I await the arrival of Jess Franco's latest movie Paula Paula - I go back in time and read European Trash Cinema Special Vol1.