Island of the Living Dead

Island of the Living Dead
Originl Title: L’isola dei morti viventi
Directed by: Bruno Mattei (Vincent Dawn)
Italy, 2006
Horror/Zombies,
Distributed by: Ritka Video

Despite being commonly referred to as one of the biggest hacks of Italian cinema, The king of recycling footage and a completely talentless copycat, Bruno Mattei continued making low budget genre pieces until the day he passed away. He’s one of the few who never strayed from the path and continued to churn out cheap, enjoyable trash when many of the others either lost their touch or simply retired. For this reason alone one should stop hounding Mattei and instead start to appreciate his dedication to genre cinema. Bruno Mattei demands your respect, and if you are not prepared to give him it, then you should stop reading now, burn all your low budget trash flicks and go back to watching rom-coms with Hugh Grant, as you obviously don’t appreciate what Mattei is all about.

In the last years of his life, Bruno Mattei returned to on of the genre he’s most commonly associated with, the zombie flick. None of the other old school genre directors where getting much work, but Mattei packed up his bags and shot a series of zombie themed movies in the Philippines. Movies that capture the passion, enthusiasm and energy of the movies Bruno Mattei - and others - made back in the eighties.

Time for a quickfix to fill you in on The Island of the Living Dead. A boat full of treasure hunters and scientists get caught in storm whilst on a mission and end up on an abandoned island. This is obviously an island where the undead – in various shapes and forms – roam the dark labyrinth of the desolate buildings. They encounter the flesh eating monsters and in a varied manner of ways they start to decrease in numbers. The most unlikely of characters survives and in the best fashion, there’s a last minute shock in store after a highly spectacular rescue sequence…

…especially considering where Mattei went on the movie that followed this one.

As you can see, it’s a good old zombie nightmare story with all the frills and chills that you would come to expect from a Bruno Mattei movie. He even directed it under his old classic pseudonym, and believe me, this movie is all Vincent Dawn. In all fairness this isn’t one of Mattei’s best movies. But it’s not one of his worst either, because if there’s one thing that shines though the somewhat poor acting – mostly due to the cheesy dubbing – it’s an overall atmosphere that simulates the eighties movies. There’s a somewhat lack of predictability that was one of the ingredients that drew me to Italian genre to start with. Here Mattei presents us with a somewhat evolved zombie flick as we meet vampire and ghost incarnations of the old classic gut-munching ghouls. Kind of like a smorgasbord of horror paraphernalia, as long as they get the job done.

Again the unpredictability works for this movie as where you may think you know where it’s about to go, it takes a quick twist and tosses something new at you. I feel that Mattei and his scriptwriters have taken Island of the Living Dead seriously – yes one can write a movie seriously even if it becomes a cheap low budget flick in the end - and I see this in several areas. Nah, it’s not in the dialogue where everyone is angry and swears at least once in ever line. But it’s in the framework. This isn’t’ something that’s just been tossed together as a series of incidents bound together by slow paced slush. Instead there’s an obvious amount of work gone into this project.

Any self-respecting movie wants’ to either set the force of antagonism from start of open so we know what we have pending a threat to our world in the original world. Island of the Linving Dead does both, after a lengthy initial attack taking place hundreds years ago Conquistadors fight off hordes of living dead. It has to be said that musket shots to the head of the bagged undead may remind of the opening to Lucio Fulci’s Zombi, although the pack these shots punch are fucking hard. The soldiers can’t hold back the horde and finally the church is overthrown leaving the governor and his men to their bloody fate. The initial attack has been presented, if by chance I’d never seen a zombie movie before, I at least know what the hell is threatening the characters.

Much like the old classic Italian Zombie flicks, there’s a wraparound story, something that establishes the ordinary world – the treasure hunters on the boat. This plants that these are active characters, and it also shows that they are capable of the most challenging tasks – salvaging the treasure – even if they do fail at times. It gives dimension to them, and there would really not be anything at stake if they had succeeded getting the treasure, navigating through the fog and then just chugged on to the next challenge.

There’s a neat back-story about the vessel “Natavidad” which sank off the coast of the island. This boat plays an important part in the genesis of the undead, and a boat from which all the evil unravels. It's not to hard to connect the dots between the looted treasure in the segment that introduced us to the characters, and the boat that they stole it from… to the spirits of the dead come back to claim revenge for having been disturbed.

Island of the Living Dead also uses the classic device of mixing in a few gags before a horror moment. Perhaps not in the formatted way of the American popcorn horror flicks, where the gag and the horror share the same moment, but more like a gag and then over to the horror. A line of dialogue like “oh I think I shat my pants…” is delivered before cutting to the other half of the cast and an attack made on them by a zombie passing by. In it’s own peculiar way it works and once you get into reading the movie in that way and taking it for what it is – it get’s the job done even if it means watching a flamenco dancing scene.

Island of the Living Dead has plenty of amusing nods to classic moments in earlier genre movies. If you know your stuff you will be laughing at referents to classic scenes from Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Fulci’s Zombi and Bianchi’s Burial Ground – well at least the monks that live by the prophesy of the black spider.

I have a problem with the video look of the movie, but hey, if that’s what it took for Mattei to get out there and shoot, then I guess I can lay my grain fetish to one side. Shot on HighDef video, there’s crispiness to the film that makes it feel very much like a TV soap, which kind of takes away from what Mattei’s after. Although this isn’t made for TV, and there’s enough moments to prove it.

As said, Island of the Living Dead may not represent Bruno Mattei’s best work, nor his worst. But it is a entertaining flick that definitely captures the atmosphere and feeling of the old school classics that appeal to me so profoundly. I enjoyed Island of the Living Dead and pretty soon I stopped moaning about the image, and just got into the story and found myself swept away by the flick and the magic of Bruno Mattei once again.

The Antichrist

The Antichrist

Original Title: L’antichristo

Directed by: Alberto De Martino

Italy, 1974

Horror/Satan/Occult, 112 min

Distributed by: Optimum Releasing.

As far as satanic possession movies go there’s not too many of them tach come off as anything else than cheesy Exorcist rip offs. These past weeks I’ve seen several variants on the old possessed teenage chick story, and it’s fair to say that the most of them all fall into the same pitfalls and needless to say they all have the same familiar traits that we know all to well.

Current stuff like Manuel Carballo’s La posesión de Emma Evans (Exorcismus) 2010, Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism 2010 or even Paco & Balaugeró’s [Rec]2 2009, all play by the book, and you know before the last act rolls through you will have seen bile, rolling eye whites, foul language snarled out by the possessed and in the most cases levitation. Needless to say these movies look fantastic, a lot has happened since William Friedkin unleashed his 1973 milestone movie based on Peter Blatty’s novel of the same name. But I still hold a naïve fascination for those movies released much nearer to that landmark of genre cinema, the stuff so painfully trying to cash in on the success of The Exorcist. I’m obviously talking about movies like Mario Bava’s Lisa e il diavolo (Lisa & The Devil) 1974 - also recut with alternate material to assimilate Fridekin’s movie under the name House of Exorcism, Amando De Ossorio’s La endemoniada (The Possessed) 1975 and Alberto de Martino’s L’antichristo (The Antichrist) 1974 to name a few.

Those movies, despite how they did at the box-office back then, have become somewhat cult classics by today’s standards. Back then they where painfully trying to get in on the action, and being so close to that original flick, I feel that they where lost at the time. Today it’s movies like these that I can appreciate as they tried to pull stuff off on minimal budgets and to some extent succeeded in mimicking the sensationalism of the original.

Since a terrible accident in her childhood Ippolita Oderisi [Carla Gravina] has been paralyzed from waist down. Her religious father Massimo [Mel Ferrer] is supportive and takes her on pilgrimages to various sacred places and statues of saints in hope of some miracle cure. Even Bishop Ascanio Oderisi [Arthur Kennedy] is concerned and holds masses to pray for Ippolita. Although when Ippolita’s brother Fillipo [Remo Girone] turns up at a party with his mate Marcello Sinibaldi [Umberto Orsini] desperately trying to match the two together, Ippolita pretty soon realises that Sinibaldi is a psychiatrist with a hidden agenda.

Convinced that Ippolita’s handicap is rooted in her background, perhaps in a former life way before that childhood accident, Dr. Sinibaldi persuades Ippolita to undergo some regression therapy hypnosis. That’s when the trouble starts. In her previous life Ippolita was a witch, also playing dual roles with a spiffy longhaired blonde wig, and this witch was burned at the stake for being in league with Satan. Obviously this demonic force takes a grip of Ippolita and pretty soon she can’t tell the awoken past life persona from the real Ippolita. Which is a great thing for us as this gives De Martino and his cinematographer Aristide Massaccesi – yes old loveable Joe D’Amato – an opportunity to mess around with back projection, mate screens and creating some pretty neat levitation, transformation and freaky special effect moments including a couple of really impressive imploding mirrors and television screens along the way.

Like any movie in the demonic possession realm Ippolita vomits bile, she spreads her legs and taunts everyone around her with her sexuality, makes sideboards and cupboards levitate around the room and decomposes with each day that goes until there’s only the demon present and almost no Ippolita at all. Finally the moment we have been awaiting is upon us, Massimo's brother, Bishop Oderisi, arrives to take on the age old nemesis of the church and the final battle commences… or wait it doesn’t because this movie holds yet another surprise for it’s audience.

In film theory some studies latch frantically onto what’s known as the image system, it’s at times so farfetched that it becomes almost more parody than anything else. One of my favourite passages in all the writings Russian filmmaker Andrej Tarkovsky left behind is when he discusses the reoccurrence of horses, apples and billowing fields in his work. After years of film students and academics trying to force their theories and interpretations of his “image system” Tarkovsky himself wrote that he simply liked the look of horses, apples and billowing fields. That’s fucking brilliant and such a smack in the face of over analytical bullshit. Which also is one of the reasons I write the crap I write on here, there’s no need to sneer at alternative low budget cinema, as it’s filled to the brim of the same symbolism, traits, storytelling and image systems that the acknowledged filmmakers and art house posers have been using for all time.

Getting back on track, it’s fair to say that the image system of The Antichrist has to be toads. Toads figure in several occasions throughout the movie and these toads are obviously associated with negative values, evil magical beasts and demonic creatures. The reason for this is of course the metaphoric value that they hold, the transformation from tadpole to full grown toad represents the resurrection, the rebirth. Much like the rebirth of the demon in The Antichrist. Then there’s the symbol value of strong feminine energy, clearly the energy of the female demon. It’s also a key part of the antichrist communion, where the torn off head of the toad serves as the body of Satan!

This is a great little movie. It’s entertaining as hell and takes several sudden turns. It has a lot going for it with the back-story that slowly lets out more information as it goes along. For a while I was sure that the Mel Ferrer relationship with Swedish starlet Anita Strindberg would be milked and become a sinister back-story where Ferrer had cheated on his wife with Strindberg before that terrible accident hence being projected guilt that had paralyzed Ippolita. There’s a small indication of oedipal jealousy in there, but nothing that really pays off apart from a few lines of possessed blasphemy and raunchy talk concerning her father and future wife’s sexual appetites. But it never goes for the guilt trip in that classic way. Instead the entire back-story arc is dedicated to the witch trial and execution. A parallel story that’s also reflected in the main narrative, such as the last minute redemption that turns former life witch Ippolita into the saint she visits at during the opening sequence. This opening sequence is mirrored in more than one-way during the movie’s climax, but you’ll just have to check it out to see in what way.

I find that Alberto De Martino’s script, co-written with Vincenzo Mannino and Gianfrano Clerici is satisfying as it uses what we've seen and brings something new with it - a very salty italian twist just the way we want it. This approach is nothing new for Mannino – writer of several character driven Poliziotteschi about Police Inspector Betti, commonly portrayed by Maurizio Merli and epic adventures also “in the familiar style of others” like Enzo G. Castellari’s L’ultimo squalo (Great White) 1981 or Ruggero Deodato’s I predatori di Atlantide (The Raiders of Atlantis) 1982, has been down that path on more than one occasion. But perhaps it mostly the movies he worked as co-writer on, stuff like Deodato’s La casa sperduta nel parco (House on the Edge of the Park) 1980, Lucio Fulci’s Lo squartatore di New York (The New York Ripper) 1982 and Murder-Rock: uccide a passo di danza (Murder-Rock: Dancing Death) 1984 that he’s most known for. Movies he primarily co-wrote with Gianfranco Clerici. Regular readers will know that I have something of a fetish for movies based on Clerici’s scripts, as I feel he very much indeed did write/work on some of the finest genre movies to ever come out of Italy.

Every demonic possession movie demands a grand entrance of Old Nick himself, and at least one moment that leaves it’s mark on the audience. The Black Mass where past life Ippolita engages in a satanic orgy is fantastic. I won’t spoil it for you but there’s a goat scene – which isn’t graphic at all, but fantastically suggestive and really brilliantly edited by Vincenzo Tomassi, who you recall edited all those Lucio Fulci movies. Tomassi brings a great flow to The Antichrist and it rarely feels as if it’s loosing pace, and there’s several brilliant juxtapositions you really need to see if you are into suggestive editing – and fucking amazing movies. Apart from the goat incident, there’s a hilarious moment where Ippolita flashes her lady parts to Bishop Oderisi, and his reaction is priceless, and just one of several splendid moments in The Antichrist.

I’ve hade the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai lying around for years, and it’s finally been a treat to actually put some images to the mental ones those tracks have been conjuring all these years. Needless to say the music is tremendously fitting when you have images to go with it.

Something I find intriguing about The Antichrist is the way De Martino uses, or rather not doesn't use his cast. There are some pretty damned good genre names in there, but none of them really get a moment to shine. Instead the whole movie does belong to Gravina who gives a grand performance in the lead. But it still feels kind of sore not to use the cast more than De Martino has. Mel Ferrer is about as interesting as drying paint, Strindberg more or less disappears from the flick after she once briefly get’s her kit off (next to an obviously bothered Ferrer who has to snog her next), the iconic Alida Valli is merely there for two small sequences and Kennedy, well he does his five minute bit and then fucks off. It’s odd and primarily saved by Gravinas dedicated performance.

As a little bonus for you if you want to get über-geeky, look out for bit part actor Ernesto Colli as the possessed man, he’s part of the mirror imagery I was talking about earlier, he's one of those faces you always remember and recognise in the large amount of movies he had bits in. And keep your eyes open when Filippo walks into the party after the opening segment. That blonde on his arm is another Scandinavian actress, this time none other than Ulla Johannsen! Doesn’t ring a bell? Well perhaps you remember her better as the naked chick with the machinegun in Enzo G. Castellari’s Ouei maledetto treno blindato (The Inglorious Bastards) 1978. There's iconic imagery if there every was iconic imagery!

Alberto De Martino followed The Antichrist with the Poliziotteschi Una Magnum Special per Tony Saitta (Blazing Magnum) 1976, held by many as one of the finest entries into that genre. It’s comes as no surprise to see that Clerici and Mannino wrote the script. Only three years later De Martino ventured back into satanic territory with Holocaust 2000, which wasn’t only a take on Richard Donner’s 1976 hit The Omen, but also sports a great performance from Spartacus himself, Mr. Kirk Douglas.

Image:

1.85:1 Colour.

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono, 2.0 English dialogue.

Extras:

None.

Burial Ground : The Nights of Terror +/- 4 Seconds

This just in...

There's been a few days of turbulence in the inner circle. Turbulence concerning internet forum rumours that claim all current releases of Andrea Bianchi's seminal sleaze-zombie epic BURIAL GROUND: The Nights of Terror are missing a vital four seconds of gore. There's even a given play time for exact where the extra seconds of gore are to be found [40min, 58sec]. Taking variations in NTSC and PAL runtimes several sources have been checked, notes have been taken, discussions have ben had and comparisons have been made. Both amongst friends and my own personal research on the several versions I own of the movie on DVD - Keep in mind it's the DVD's that are being accused of lacking four seconds of gore.

It's fair to say that the US Media Blasters/Shriek Show, Scandinavian Njuta Films/Another World Entertainment and Dutch Japan Shock all use the same master elements. Despite a varied selection of framing, contrast and brightness, they all have damage in the same area in certain scenes.

I'm quite convinced that they all originate from the same master source. No hard evidence except comparing scenes, damage and watching movies for 40 years.

Which leads us to the rumoured, real uncut, Japanese TCC Video that has the now infamous four seconds of gore... for that is what is claimed by certain characters on movie forums. Four seconds of gore, supposedly a head crush.

Let me set this up for you: 39:00 (minutes into the movie) James [Simone Mattoli - our moustachioed friend] walks down a corridor only to find the corpse of the maid [Anna Valente] hanging out through the window. At 39:30 he's right up close to her and gags as he pulls back in shock. 40:00 after seeing the zombies below, he tosses her body out the window and she hangs from the nail hammered though her hand earlier like a human piñata as the undead pull at her legs. 40:30 they pull her loose and start to chomp into the dead maid. 40:47 James starts to pull back from the terror and closes the shutters. He let's the horror sink in and the movie cuts to an extreme closeup of the maids guts being torn out. Now somewhere in that mere two minutes of movie mayhem, [40min, 58sec] the missing four seconds are found on the Japanese VHS... oh did I mention that the four seconds are either essential gore or a head crush?

Take a look at the screen grabs below and see the real difference in the three DVD releases and the Japanese VHS.

I rest my case, the rumour is busted. There was no gore, no head crush, no secret moment that changes the entire viewing experience, but merely a tender moment where actor Simone Mattoli having a delicate moment, reacting to the atrocities he's witnessed. Four seconds of leaning back on the shutters and being a complete wimpy horror movie character.

Thanks to Jack J for taking the time to video his UNCUT Japanese vhs and posting it on the old You Tube.

Siege of the Dead

Siege of the Dead

Original Title: Rammbock

Directed by: Martin Kren

Germany/Austria, 2010

Drama/Zombies, 59min

Distributed by: Revolver Entertainment

Zombies. There’s two schools when it comes to the world of the zombie - Romeroesque shufflers or the 21st century reduxed rushing reapers of death – and the third, the classic Haitian zombies favoured by Lucio Fulci and last seen with Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow 1988 somehow seem to have vanished completely… Well in all honesty I don’t really give a damn. The old school zombies that I like the most – as I was indeed raised in the Romero period shuffle - or the modern day zombie that move fast and scare the crap out of their audience. Use them in the right way and you'll have an effective movie. One of the key's is realising that the human lives at stake are perhaps what are the most interesting, and not the actual zombies. Sure they are a threat, but on more than one occasion the terror outside is not half as intimidating as some of the people who are trapped together. Yeah I know, It’s always been a big point in Romero’s movies too, and luckily this is one of the traits that most good modern zombie horrors has latched onto.

A lone man, Michael, [Michael Fuith] returns to Berlin with the intention of returning his ex-girlfriend Gabi’s [Anna Gracznyk] key to her. His agenda obviously being to swoon her back and possibly play on her guilt to take him back… Instead he finds two handymen working with the radiator system in her flat, and no sign of Gabi what so ever. One of the handymen starts to have some kind of seizure and pretty soon he’s a full-fledged chalky-eyed zombie chasing Michael and Harper [Theo Trebs] into one of the small apartments even smaller rooms. It’s in there that they notice the commotion out in the courtyard, and see other tenants who too seem to have been caught up in the disturbance. They realise that they have to join forces to close the gate into their yard or else they will soon be invaded by the hordes that now roam the streets. Instead of the common man against man, it’s a slow drive as the few remaining tenants start to figure out how they can make it out alive, and in which way they can assist each other.

For some retarded reason – primarily to latch onto the George A. Romero universe – Kren and Hessler’s Rammbock was renamed Siege of the Dead. I missed this one for a while whilst rejecting Siege of the Dead for being yet another obvious “..of the dead” cash in. But it’s not. This is a very original piece, a German zombie flick that really hits the spot. It’s a fascinating, terrifying and interesting movie that deserves much more attention that it actually received, and now it’s available on DVD, there’s no reason to miss this little gem any more.

Small everyday details are what make this movie such a brilliant little piece. Michael’s almost anal determination to keep things normal, like when he gives Harper a bollocking for bending Gabi’s forks into weapons - a slingshot and ammo, or how he’s determined that each call to that damned cell phone he’s dropped in the stairwell outside the locked apartment door is Gabi calling to see that he’s OK… a determination that forces them out of the flat, on to the ledge only to face the clawing zombies and run right back into the flat, chased back into the most cramped back room where escape seems impossible. Also the way they put the zombie infestation into proportion as the news name it “our own, German 11th September”. The emotion associated of that state of anxiety is fairly easy to tap into and works grand for the movie.

Early on there’s a theme of alienation introduced when Michael shouts to the police officer in the yard for help. The police officer looks up and snarls a bloody grinned snarl that is very symbolic. When the law have lost control of the situation – the shit has hit the fan. A while later Michael stands on a rooftop gazing out over the city of Berlin whilst pillars of smoke raise to the skies. A metaphoric moment that echoes the bombed out destruction of Berlin sixty-six years ago, a time that Germany was wrecked and left to their own devices, a deep scar of alienation.

Claustrophobia is also a very effective tool used in Siege of the Dead, the locations get smaller and smaller as the movie goes forth, at one point Michael finds himself hiding in a cupboard with hardly enough room to lift up his arms, and Harper is isolated in the tiniest of crawlspaces when the two men have important insights into how to survive the night – metaphorically things have to become really bad before they can get better and these two instances are such moments of the movie. Harper realises he holds a potent weapon, Michael is about to have his world thrown over and only after staring death in the eye can they appreciate the insight they gained.

Benjamin Hessler, screenwriter of Siege of the Dead is a promising name and I can’t wait to see where he goes next. Despite being his debut feature, Siege of the Dead is a fascinating, entertaining and intense movie that delivers in many ways. Even though it is all about Michael and his quest to be reconnected with his girlfriend Gabi, the interesting twist is that Michael isn’t such a likeable character. He’s rather unsympathetic. Not that he’s evil or a bad guy, he’s just not really likeable, and the complete opposite of what you would expect the protagonist of a zombie movie to be like. He’s short, he’s quite obnoxious, he’s clumsy and he’s in all honesty a pretty odd character. Which is an ingenious move by Hessler – as this creates something of an ultimate underdog, this chubby, unlikeable persona with his almost stalkerish approach is fascinating and obviously this creates a natural interest in him. I invest in his character and I want him to be reunited with the girlfriend he longs for. Which he finally is, and then the movie takes a completely different road.

Where Michael spends the longer part of the movie thinking only about himself and his quest, he changes path when he finally is reunited with Gabi. In no way does this scenario take place in the fashion he expected, but rather the opposite and this changes him. It takes his character arc onto a different path, something that I really found fascinating as character development is rare in zombie movies. Characters usually stay polarised in their sphere throughout the entire movie – I’m not saying that it never happens, as it is becoming more and more common, hell there’s even a TV serial where this happens more or less every week, but in low budget features, it’s still a rarity.

Siege of the Dead was a really entertaining movie, an unpredictable movie, and a movie that I find to bring something new to the table. Stuff like Yann Demange’s brilliant Dead Set, or Marc Price’s Colin 2008, brought new novelties with them - although Colin was way to long, a pit fall Siege of the Dead avoids and almost comes off as to short, and I’m longing for more when the movie ends –I feel that Siege of the Dead is onto something. There’s an emotion in the movie that’s not found to often and that seemingly unlikeable character – who obviously becomes likeable when the moment of truth comes around – is a fascinating way to go.

Image:

16x9 anamorphic widescreen

Audio:

Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, German dialogue, optional English subtitles.

Extras:

None.