Kungsleden

Kungsleden

Aka My Love and I,
aka Obsession
Sweden, 1964
Thriller, 106 min.
Distributed by: KlubbSuper8

Story:
A middle aged man takes a walk on Kungsleden, a trail that goes through the Northern Swedish highlands. A trail he previously walked ten years ago with his girlfriend Leni. That trip ended in the couple calling off their relationship and each going their separate ways… Even though it was a decade ago he last saw her, the man can’t forget Leni, the only woman he has ever loved, and the further through the trail he gets the more confused he becomes over what really did happen all those years ago on Kungsleden…


Me:
A trippy, enigmatic and amazing flick to say the least. There’s a fair amount of these splendid Swedish gems from the sixties/seventies with directors like Torgny Wickman, Arne Mattson and Bo Arne Wibenius to name a few, showcasing some awesome themes, great imagery, fabulous women and suggestive movies in the wake of Ingmar Bergman’s art house recognition. Most of them where already established national auteurs’ that unfortunately got stood standing in the shadow that I feel Bergman held over loads of Swedish filmmakers for a very very long time.


Director Gunnar Höglund had previously written scripts in the romantic drama area using the topic of lost love in the 1952 movie Han Glömde Henne Aldrig (aka Memory of Love) Kungsleden also builds off the themes of lost love, as “You” [Mattias Henriksson] (“You”, yeah that’s the only name he ever gets in the 106 long movie) walks his trail looking for that long lost girlfriend that he walked away from all those years. The movie flagged the tagline: “A Romantic Thriller” which is rather a bold statement I feel, because the movie is indeed a thriller, but there little or next to no romance within. Tomas Seidevall, the responsible publisher of the KlubbSuper8 DVD's, once told me that the movie could be looked upon as a Fight Club in the Mountains, and after watching the movie I really agree, it is like a Fight Club in the Mountains. The movie is very existential as “You” searches for something during his walks over marshes, crosses rapids, and climbs mountains, pondering the mysteries of his life. It should have been called an Existential Thriller instead, which would have been a much better, because the movie is existential to claim the least. And this is set right from the start with an extremely weird surreal opening sequence where a subjective scene of a woman (It’s Leni, [Maude Adelson] the long lost love, we will understand in a few moments) saying that they can’t continue anymore, not after “that”. The camera pans away and starts walking towards the mountains, stops and looks back at her, who replies with a shake of the head. A no is a no. The camera pans away again and once again walks away from her into the wilderness. Then a sharp cut to a close-up of Leni’s face turning to face the camera, gone is the openness of the mountain range, and instead a claustrophobic darkness surrounds her, and for each time she turns her face towards the camera her facial expressions change. From happy to lustful to scared to blank. And after that rather strange set up (which I’ll get back to later on) the title sequence starts. “You” walks the starting trail and pretty soon he starts seeing and hearing stuff that has him remembering his hike ten years earlier with Leni. Enter the flashbacks. Kungsleden relies heavily on flashbacks that run parallel to the main narrative to tell the tale of what happened ten years back as “You” did the walk with his love Leni. Some are confusing, and some are magnificent. In one the use of crashing porcelain brings us back from a confrontation between the two agitated lovers to the somber “You” left in awe as it all starts coming back to him. It’s a great sequence that is excellently composed. Anyhow, quite quick Leni comes across as a pretty unsympathetic character. She isn’t very nice to “You” as she taunts him when he’s afraid to cross the bridge over the rapids, she teases him at bedtime, she makes fun of him when he awkwardly rolls on a condom before they have sex, she mocks him when he falls into the rive they are crossing, she scolds him when he is fascinated by the Lapps violent marking of their reindeer herds comparing it to the Nazi’s number tattooing of WW2, she laughs at him when he tries to make advances on her, she provokes him when he gets jealous that she’s bathing in the nude and flirting with the strangers that she meets on the mountain, and to top it all off she ignores his hurt emotions and goes out for coffee with the Lapp she just met moments ago instead of staying with the distraught “You”. So no, she isn’t a very likeable character. She annoyed the hell out of me to say the least. But then “You”, who hasn’t been a very considerate character either, rather the opposite, a pretty silly, weak person, overthrows the tables when he misreads the signals and rapes Leni, pushing her further away from him than ever before.

So in the past part of the movie, neither character is especially empathetic, but for some strange reason the older “You” evokes empathy. Those lines uttered by Leni in the flashback before the title sequence, “It’s impossible; you must know that, not now. Perhaps in Ten years time when we both have grown older…” are repeated over and over again as well as the sensory reminders of Leni, the scent of myrrh that she washes her hair with, her questioning of local fauna, the things one remembers from the old times. Which gives some sort of nobility to “You” and his quest for the love he once lost. We still do not know what happened, and as the flashback narrative tells us of the past, we are drawn in by the forward movement of the present narrative because those ten years have passed and we feel that “You” should be redeemed and reunited if possible with Leni. And when the imaginary indicators start turning into reality, Leni’s name in the cabin logbook, the myrrh scent on the pillows, the still burning fire, it all adds to the forward movement as we realize that Leni too has returned to Kungsleden, and if she has returned she may quite well be looking for “You” just as he searches for her. Deep inside of our exploitation loving hearts we are all suckers for a happy ending.


Then the Höglund and Bosse Gustafsson (who wrote the original novel and co-wrote the script with Höglund) throw us a curveball as they show us what happened all those years ago, how “You” driven by his jealousy, guilt from raping Leni and fear of rejection takes drastic actions. Actions so terrible that they still haunt him like the day they occurred. The movie grows very dark and harrowing from this moment. Mentally the older “You” relives in his older state how he buries Leni on the mountain, stumbles into a dark cabin and sees the younger version of himself tossing and turning in post murder angst in the cot on the other side of the room, and finally he has terrifying nightmares as the past catches up with him. (There are also glimpses of a possible accident scenario to add to the confusion) The next morning “You” awakens and meets “The Other” [Lars Lind] who is sharing the room with him, a man possibly ten years his senior, who tells him a strange story about the mountains and how time has no influence there. “You” agrees confusedly and remarks that his watch has stopped since he got on Kungsleden, before he notices (or has visions, jus like the visions of Leni earlier on that lead him to the flashbacks) items that used to belong to Leni, her camera rolls and her scarf… “You” becomes convinced that “The Other” was Leni’s killer and follows him up into the high mountains struggling up sharp rocks and harsh mountain faces just too confront “The Other” with his theories. “The Other” laughs at his accusations, and the fact that “You” suffering from severe vertigo is cowering on a small ledge. Never the less, “The Other” pities “You” and offers to help him down the mountain, even though he’s just accused him of being a murderer. “You” climbs down, but snags the rope on a ledge, and when “The Other” instructs him to loosen the cord he yanks it, sending “The Other” falling down the face of the mountain to his death. “You” gathers strength, climbs down the mountain and without finding the body of “The Other” starts hiking back to civilization. End credits roll…

Now how the hell do you interpret this strange and bizarre movie? Well here’s my take and answers to the clues hidden without the flick. The opening shots of Leni shot from “You’s” point of view and the series of close-ups on her face; well this is in a nutshell the movie isn’t it! The rejection is what drove “You” into his personal hell, and when Leni’s face goes from happy as in the start and finally to the dead face of the drowned Leni in the end represents her journey in four quick shots. Obviously “You” is chasing himself; his own guilt drives him into the mountains searching for answers, as he tries to redeem himself for the events that took place there.

That ending when “The Other” falls from the cliff and there’s no body to be found… Here’s my interpretation; “The Other” is “You” as an older man! Stick with me now, because this is going to get heavy. Remember that dialogue between “The Other” and “You” the morning after his nightmare? “The Other” points out that time means nothing in the mountains. Things that happened years ago could just as easy have happened a few days ago, and vice versa… Then together with that voice over just after the title sequence, that warns not to leave the trails with the words “As long as you wander here on the paths nothing can happen to you…” Well if you pay attention you will notice that “You” cuts his cheek just as he sets foot on solid ground again… hence creating the cut that the middle age version of “You” has had on his face all through out the movie. Time does stand still, the young, middle age and older “You” have never left Kungsleden, he’s trapped there, damned to walk the Kungsleden for all eternity. But when he come face to face with the reality he has been neglecting he is freed, you could say that he redeems himself by creating an imaginary him that killed Leni. By killing himself to live he has now found peace and the last scene before the masters hot of him walking away shows his watch now ticking once again.

Kungsleden is a confusing, strange and facinating movie that definitely is a showcase for Mattias Henriksson who portrays both the middle age and young “You” to such perfection that I on more than one occasion was convinced that it was two different actors. Henriksson stared in a few more movies before ending up playing bit parts in TV serials for the remains of his career, a shame on such a promising actor. But once again there’s that looming shadow of Bergman that I started out talking about.

Apart from the hazy wide shots of desolate landscapes, Kungsleden uses an even stranger soundtrack to add to the mystery. Remember Gene Moore’s evocative Wurlitzer score for Herk Havey’s 1962 Carnival of Souls? Well imagine that on a Hammond organ and you have Karl-Erik Welin’s equally disturbing score for Kungsleden. But all in all it adds up for a really surreal, haunting and enjoyable movie.

Höglund followed up Kungsleden with the 1969 Swedish Sin classic …som havets nakna vind (Aka One Swedish Summer) which caused outrage at the censors, and became known as the “most scolded intercourse movie” for it’s explicit content. If this is what made it sell to over forty countries outside of Sweden I will let go untold, but controversial criticism always adds a fair amount of interest for new titles doesn’t it. Next he directed the raunchy sex comedy Som hon bäddar får han ligga (aka Do You Believe in Swedish Sin?). Both films are available from the guys at KlubbSuper8, and his last directorial effort, the splendid kid’s detective/thriller Dante – Akta-re för Hajen! (Aka Dante, Beware of the Shark!) which I have fond memories of watching as a kid back in the golden age of VCR, is on their TBA list along with the interrelationship melodrama Vill så gärna tro’t (aka Want so Much to Believe) where Christina Scholin falls in love with Robert Nash! Groovy stuff to keep an eye open for or pick up what’s available already now.

Image:
1:16.66, color.

Audio:
Mono, Swedish dialogue, sometimes English with Swedish subtitles burned in. Unfortunately there are no English subtitles, on any of the KlubbSuper8 titles except for Sweden Heaven and Hell, which is a pity as they should subtitle them, so fans of wild and wonderful cinema outside of Sweden can enjoy the gems in their catalogue.

Extras:
A short reel showing the pressbook and poster art for Kungsleden, and trailers for Kungsleden, Aldrig med min kofot, Anaconda, Drrapå –kul grej på väg till Götet, Flamman, Jangada, Johan på snippen, Johan på snippen tar hem spelet, Linje sex, Mord i Marstrand, and Morianerna all available from KlubbSuper8.

Sorry no trailer as KlubbSuper8 haven't upploaded one yet and the only one available encourages you to download the movie, and that is just wrong isn't it. :)

Django

Django

Directed by: Sergio Corbucci
Spaghetti Western, 1966
Italy, 88 min.
Distributed by: Atlantic Film.

Story:
Django walks slowly through the dry barren desert dragging a coffin behind him. He first rescues a young woman, Maria, from the claws of two opposing gangs, Major Jackson’s red hooded hoodlums and the Mexican bandits, splicing him in-between the two enemy camps. He claims to be their to avenge the only person he ever loved and sets out on a one man rampage killing all of Major Jackson’s gang but soon proves to have further motives, namely to swipe the gold from Fort Charriba with the help of the opposing Mexican bandits. Gambling high Django goes up against two separate gangs, wedging himself in between the two rival parts in his quest to achieve his two goals, vengeance and money.


Me:
Probably one of the most known Spaghetti Westerns outside of Leone’s fistful of genre classics, Sergio Corbucci’s Django sure makes it’s mark and there’s a very obvious reason that it made an impact full impression back in 1966 when it was released on the big screens and later on when the wonderful world of home entertainment exploded and video tapes hit the shelves of rental stores allover Europe.

Banned when it first hit screens outside of Italy (both cinema and domestically on VHS) due to the sadistic violence and nihilistic tone that the movie holds it’s fair to see why audiences wanting to push further into the genre beyond the Eastwood/Leone westerns start out by tracking down Corbucci’s milestone Spaghetti Western. And even though it has some flaws that distract from the all round experience the movie is a milestone in the aspect that it generated almost thirty, follow-ups and copycat movies.

Corbucci had previously directed four Spaghetti Westerns, nowhere near the brilliance of Django, but like them it was inspired by the dark anti-hero take of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo from 1961, (just like Leone’s Fistful of Dollars the year after) and was an important addition to the army of Italian Spaghetti Westernsthat in cold blood blew the old school American westerns out of the saloon and into the mud outside.

Then there’s the violence and the flip-flopping of characters that make the Italian genre cinema so much more attractive than most of the boring old tricks that other non-European countries where shipping out at the same time. In Django the gore hounds get what they want (although don’t go there today expecting a blood fest, but put in the correct time frame and it’s gore galore, sit like this wasn't happening in other Westerns!) almost fifty hoodlums are torn apart by extensive gunfire from the Gattling gun Django pulls out of the coffin he’s been dragging with him allover the place, prostitutes fist fight in the mud, a preacher gets his ear sliced of and then force fed it, and then there’s the extensive beating that Django takes. And we’re not talking about a few punches to the face and gut here, no first Mexican bandit General Hugo Rodriguez has his right hand man smash the butt of his rifle into Django’s hands some twenty times, then the entire band of Mexicans ride their horses over the mangled digits that Django so skillfully uses to quickly shoot his enemies down. And what good is a gunslinger that can’t use his trigger finger?

A few years ago (when it was released on DVD by Criterion in 2000) I revisited Perry Henzell’s 1972 excellent Jamaican crime flick The Harder They Come, which features the machinegun massacre of Django in a key scene, and as I hadn’t seen Django since years ago I was surprised that the infamous Gattling gun scene was already over and done with before the movie hit the halftime mark, I was convinced that this scene was the grand finale, but nope. Midpoint, or possibly point of no return, as Django wipes out the entire gang that rides with Major Jackson [Eduardo Fajardo], letting only him flee for he hills.

How do you possibly escalate a move after that ecstatic crescendo of death and violence? Well Corbucci moves to new ground and shifts from the classic “Revenge/Vengeance” plot to the “Greed/Money” plot that he and his brother Bruno Corbucci explored in many of their great scripts. Money and greed is almost always the single driving force of all characters in a Corbucci Western. Django befriends, or rather is reunited with his old jail buddy General Hugo Rodriguez, (played by Jóse Bódalo who also just like Eduardo Fajardo and Gino Pernice starred in Corbucci’s Compañeros against Franco Nero four years later) and as they celebrate the victory over Major Jackson’s band Django suggests the plan to raid Fort Charriba and share the gold held there. Stealing from the Fort and hefty heists are a Corbucci trait too, as it is recurrent in several of his Westerns. With the money from the heist, the Mexicans would have enough money to buy nine more Gatling guns that Django claims to be available. And with these the bandits could return to Mexico as heroes with massive firepower on their side. So even here the motif of greed is important.

General Rodriguez can now return home to Mexico a powerful man that will hold a valuable position. His greed drives him into the plan. Needless to say there’s a second twist and Django goes a step further and his greed makes him attempt to double-cross the General and swipe the gold for himself… which brings the first of two main plots full circle the damned bridge over the quicksand, the same where Django saved Maria’s [silently portrayed by Loredana Nusicak] life at the start of the movie, the one that leads on to freedom and the future, Django says to Maria during the opening that he’s not ready to cross the bridge yet, and now that he’s facing it once again it becomes his downfall. The coffin containing the gold slips from the wagon and plummets into the quicksand. Despite Django’s desperate attempts to salvage it he fails, Maria is gunned down by the Mexicans and only due to previously having saved General Rodriguez in prison (yet another unexplored subplot if you ask me) Django gets to keep his life, but only barely and not with his fast gun hands intact. But you can’t keep a good man down, and if he can’t escape his past through hue wealth, he better redeem it in the way he originally set out to do; Vengeance. Needless to say the last part of the movie builds towards the final shootout with Major Jackson and the few remains of his once terrorizing gang, and even though it isn’t as formulated and stylized as later Spaghetti Westerns with their low angles, deep focus, cross cut with extreme close-ups of eyes, fingers and the inedible waiting for the shots to come, because that’s what differs the finale of Italian Westerns over American ones. Where the US movies focus on the actual shootout (i.e. Ford, Houston, Peckinpah) the Italians focus on the mood an atmosphere just before the shots ring out giving us those wonderful moments of cinematic glory. The shootings are over in a few seconds, the villains, or in some cases the heroes are dead, but that moment of pre-death still lingers on emotionally. A Corbucci-esque metaphor for life, it can be slow, tedious and disregarded, but taken from us in the blink of an eye.

I have read several analysis of Django that claim that there are no sub-plots to this magnificent movie, but I tend to disagree and claim that there definitely are subplots to be found, and these are what make main plots click into each other, even if the subplots are not closed. The story of Maria, which is left uncommented, (apart from the information that she used to be the whore of Major Jackson, went over to the Mexicans and then fled from them too, leaving her in the troublesome state she’s in at the start of the movie. There’s the dark “Love story” between Maria and Django. Yes it is there. After he saves her she offers herself to him in the safety of the brothel, and he isn’t late in responding, even if Corbucci chooses to let this happen behind closed doors. This is also what allows Django to tell the story of his dark past later on when he tells Maria that he once knew love and will never know love like that again. And don’t forget that Maria follows him as he makes off with the gold, saving his life before her own is put in jeopardy on the bridge. There’s the “revenge” story that Django unfolds during his visit to the cemetery, and the untold story behind what happened all those years ago. There’s the entire subplot of The Mexican Band of Bandits vs. Major Jackson and his troops, which Django uses in his quest for both his goals, swipe the gold and take his revenge. So to say that there are no subplots is pretty far fetched I feel.

A further directorial trait I love about Sergio Corbucci is his Fellini-esque ugliness that is found in almost everything, the sets really look shitty and abandoned, the prostitutes are butt-ugly, the violence is always way exaggerated, and there’s always a morbid fascination for death and the grotesque in his films. This exemplified in the finale out where Django chews the trigger guard off his pistol (probably wrecking what’s left of his teeth in the process) and uses a cross in the cemetery to wedge his gun in between before slamming his mangled hands on the cock and trigger in the final shootout.

On the down side, I feel that Django perhaps is not the masterpiece that it’s hailed as, as it certainly has its flaws and I feel that Corbucci made some better Westerns after this one, but the main letdown of the movie has to be the terribly poor dubbing and dialogue. Sure, being a fan of Italian movies, I’m all for dubbing and sound overlays, it’s all part of the charm when it comes to Italian genre cinema. Silly voices, awkward grammar, and faulty dialogue, and we all know about the 300 page scripts actors where getting, and just by own decisions slicing away dialogue from, hence creating some of he most memorable Western characters ever…, but it all comes together neatly and with discretion in the majority of cases. But Django unfortunately feels as nobody ever really took the time to look through the dialogue, and then when it was overdubbed it was laid down very sloppy and often out of sync with the actors. Which is a shame, then there’s the soundtrack. Right off the bat, I’m not a big fan of Luis Enriquez Bacalov’s score for this movie at all. Sure there is a damned good push in that title track, DJANGOOOO! With its powerful chorus and all, and god knows it was copied over and over again by others, but the score to the rest of the film just gets me annoyed. Just like the sound dubbing I get a very determined feeling that nobody really gave a damn about this important part. I’m sure that Sergio Corbucci was involved, but to what extent is questionable, as he did script and direct three/four other movies during the same year. Where was Nick Alexander when we really needed him?

Anyhow, Django, a masterpiece or not is a defining moment for Spaghetti Western history, and it makes an impression still today, and is a very enjoyable movie with a great early (not first, contrary to common belief) leading role from Franco Nero as the classic anti hero Django.

Image:
Anamorphic Widescreen 16x9 [original proportion 1.85:1]

Audio:
English Dolby Digital 2.0. Stereo. Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian subtitles optional

Extras:
So lame that it’s hardly worth calling them extras, but there’s a very weak poster and artwork galley, and a complete waste of space “cast and crew” text that is really just the credits all over again. Unfortunately this Atlantic release is a real shitty print, the colors dip at time to time and there is a lot of damage to the print, but it was a cheap one I found in a box during holiday, and just looking at the Franco Nero as Django artwork on the front of the box made me decide I needed to see Django ASAP. In retrospect I should have waited and ordered the far more superior Blue Underground edition instead.

Mark of the Devil

Mark of the Devil
Original title: Hexen geschändet und zu Tode gequält
Directed By: Michael Armstrong
Horror / Drama, 1973
West Germany, 92min
Distributed by: Extreme



Story:
When the church state witch hunter comes to town the local one is put on the spot as his position of power is diminished. In a desperate attempt to prove that he still has the eye for picking out witches he accuses Vanessa a charming young woman who just happens to have been favoured by the which hunters apprentice Christian. The young apprentice takes Vanessa under his wings and saves her from the town witch hunter, but these newly awoken feelings make him have second thoughts about performing God’s will as the witch hunter general pays attention to the village hunter and throws Vanessa into the Dungeon for interrogation. Many lives are lost in the quest to burn all witches and the torture is appalling but still Christian finds reason to question if they are doing the right thing, and discovers that certain people are using their position for their own sinister desires…


Me:
Mark of the Devil so genially promoted with the free barf bags in cinemas and tag lines like “Rated V for Violence” and “Positively the most horrifying Film ever made!” sure did its fair bit to bring in the audiences both in the cinema and later on during the video revoulution. With quotes like that on the cover art you KNOW that you want to see this movie. Right from the start you know what you are going to get here with this West German entry into the “which hunter” niche, as the instance that the opening credits are complete, a band of thugs attack a wagon full of nuns raping and murdering them without showing any mercy. Then we are thrown into the little town where the movie is going to take place, a bloke has his hands cut off, and then he’s tarred and feathered before being chased out of town. Finally two women are tied to stakes and burned alive over the fire… This is the kind of movie that makes me dread BluRay. Not because of the movie per se, but because all those loveable flaws that can already be seen on regular DVD will tear your eyes out in HD. It’s painfully obvious that the bloke getting his hands lopped off doesn’t because in the next scene when he’s getting tarred and feathered you very clearly see his fists with some red goo on them, also the women being burned, as they are lowered into the flames it’s clear that it’s a mannequin tossed into the fire as the wrist and arm junctions are fully visible. But still, it’s an effective opening following that “Positively the most horrifying film ever made!”


But to be honest it isn’t the most horrifying and the violence isn’t that violent compared to other films of the time. The movie feels sloppy and the editing is really annoying with quick cuts at a disturbing pave for no real reason and then there’s all those confusing edits where people suddenly are looking at the wrong angle that keeps throwing me off and annoying the crap out of me. But then again it’s a cheesy, sleazy exploitation flick, and not a showcase of masterful cinema and the cast is the great show of force here. A young Udo Kier as Christian the which hunter apprentice, Herbert Lom as the witch hunter master, Herbert Fux vile Jeff the Executioner and the ever sinister looking Reggie Nalder as Albino the local witch hunter who accuses everyone who walks in his way for being a which only to go about his sadistic ways. The story is rather interesting as the apprentice, saves young maiden Vanessa [Olivera Katarina] from Albino’s evil grip early on in the movie after Albion tries to explain to Christian the apprentice that he is the village which hunter, after he has been to be patronised by Christian. Albion in a rage of anger cries out that Vanessa is a witch to prove his which hunting skills. That’s when Christian steps in and rescues her from the abusive Albino. This rescue is followed up with a quite long sequence where he takes her to his home and they slowly become friends, which leads to then falling in love… Imagine the witch hunters apprentice falling for a which! And just as they engage in their first kiss we crash cut to the witch hunter making his pompous entrance.

As the Witch hunter has his first major scene he’s unhappy with Jeff the Executioner for failing to find the mark of the Devil on a poor young girl sent before the hunter. Hence the name of the film as skin defects like moles are signs of being in league with the devil, and guess who has a mole on her face? Christian the apprentice’s newfound love Vanessa, which is what Albino, claimed to be proof hat she was a witch in the tavern earlier on. The young girl standing in front of the hunter is pardoned and after thanking him she is set free and as she leaves, Albion enters. The hunter points out that Albino is late, and with out excusing himself Albino sits down to the next accused witches case. A great way of setting up the contrasts here as the Which Hunter shows a good trait as the evil Albino who just gave Vanessa a damned good thrashing in the stables just keeps on pushing his foul ways upon the audience. The which hunter goes about his work and sentences the next case to first be stretched on the rack and then have her tongue ripped out by the root, but to keep the balance, the next scene sees Albino smile a sinister smile as Christian is stunned by the fact that Albino still wants to prove that he's the only witch hunter in the village and has Vanessa brought in front of the Which Hunter General to once and for all prove that she is a which. Christian points out that there is no indigent against Vanessa, but these documents mean nothing as the accusations are told, Vanessa had intercourse with the devil in return for him making a man who made advances on her impotent… The witch hunter is so shocked he sends her straight to the dungeon before he decides her fate.


Later Christian pleads for Vanessa to the Which Hunter, who explains that Vanessa is indeed a witch and she will confess after trial in the dungeon. Here the horrors begin as a long series of violent, sadistic and gory scenes show varied ways of expelling confessions and a subplot explaining Albino’s hate of Vanessa is shown before young Christian once again pleads for Vanessa and has doubts about the way they are going about gods work. His loss of faith is complete as he witnesses his mentor try to kill Albion after he accuses the witch hunter of exploiting his position for money and sins of the flesh. More carnage and subplots are set into motion to further show that Albion in more ways than one was somewhat right in his accusations, leading Christian to finally confront his master. While Jeff the Executioner goes about his orgasmic torture session in the dungeon, Christian sneaks Vanessa out of captivity and they enjoy a brief romantic moment. But when he returns to the dungeon, Christian is grasped by the witch hunter’s henchmen and thrown into a cell. Vanessa with her freedom goes to the village pub and rallies the villagers against the Which Hunter and his mob, before they storm the castle making him run for the hills, but in a twist of fate, the angry mob find the second best thing, Christian! Stringing him up from a tree the lynch mob go about torturing to death him as Vanessa accompanied by his screams of agony rushed forth only to find her lover hanging dead from a tree…

And ten minutes later you will probably have forgotten most of the movie because it really doesn’t live up to the expectations that those taglines and barfbag promised. The movie definately hasn't aged with grace and I found myself searching for the remote on more than one occasion. Not even the charismatic Udo Kier manages to keep this one going. But it is an interresting curioustiy as it was banned upon its release in several countries and still to date, and was once a cherished gem of genre lovers back in the golden days of vhs. Then again in 1970 it was a disturbing piece of film even though it by today’s standards is quite lame, and it did spawn a sequel on 1973 Mark of the Devil II in a desperate attempt to cash in on the slim niche Hexploitation. Needless to say it didn’t.


No shadow on Riz Ortolani, but Michael Holm’s score for Mark of the Devil really reminds me of Ortolani’s brilliant score for Cannibal Holocaust that was made ten years later. On the other hand the music in Mark of the Devil seems completely random and not made to coincide with what is going on on the screen and therefore feels out of place on many occasions as it doesn’t suit the atmosphere of the action shown.


Michael Armstrong couldn’t have asked for a better start in his career as Mark of the Devil was a massive hit when it was released in 1970, but success always comes with a price. Even though the movie was a smash, Armstrong only ever directed a second feature. He wasn’t even supposed to direct this one, as Michael Reeves who directed Witchfinder General (guess the niche of that movie!) two years previously. But when Reeves suddenly passed away due to an accidental overdose of barbiturates in 1969 the reigns where handed over to his assistant on the movie that inspired Mark of the Devil, Michael Armstrong. Never the less, he stood his ground and made an impact full movie loved by fans of the genre, and he also went on to write scripts for Pete Walker’s 1982 star studded Horror anthology House of Long Shadows, starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Caradine, and even though he wasn’t credited for it he did work with the script for Tobe Hooper’s 1985 vampires from space flick Lifeforce.

At the start of the movie there’s a statement that reminds the audience that some eight million people lost their lives during the witch trials between the 15th and 19th centuries. This should obviously be taken with a pinch of salt as it’s an exploitation movie setting ground before unrolling its little sleazy tale, but at the same time a lot of people did indeed loose their lives during ridiculous processes at the hands of religious fanatics, and perhaps it’s herein that the real horror of the movie lies. After all it did happen just imagine all those women dying in the flames for no real reason but religious fanatacism, Hey that sounds like I movie I saw once...

Image:
16:9 Widescreen. The print is all right but the colours seem a tad saturated.

Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0, English dialogue with Dutch subtitles.

Extras:
The Dutch Extreme version has NO extras at all which is a shame, but then there’s a Blue-Underground version which has a couple of interviews with cast and stars Gabby Fuchs, Herbert Fux, Ingeborg Shoner and Udo Kier, a commentary track by Michael Armstrong, Theatrical trailers and radio spots, so if Mark of the Devil is your bag, then that’s the one to grab.

Here's a great trailer for the movie, which more or less plays out like a one minute version of the movie!

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Original Title: Valerie a týden divu
Directed by: Jarmil Jires
Czechoslovakia, 1970
Horror/Fantasy /Drama, 77min
Distributed by: Redemption

Story:
A young woman awakens from a strange dream and realises during a walk in the courtyard that she’s having her first period and becoming a woman. This starts off a series of events that plunge he into great trouble as her youthful blood draws vampires to her and soon she learns that the Vampires are more than just uninvited guests!



Me:
You could say Buñuel-ish or Jodorowsky-ish, but that would be an insult to Czech director Jaromil Jires and his amazing surreal horror story adaption of Vitezslav Nezval's book Valerie's and Her Week of Wonders, about young Valerie’s first days as a woman. Strange, sometimes incomprehensive and very stylish as the doe eyed Valerie [Jaroslava Schallerov] takes her first steps into womanhood is filled with randy priests, lustful vampires, shocking family constellations that twist and turn though out the movie making it a great piece of early seventies art house horror. With a storyline reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland and imagery that works like a strange blend of Jean Rollin’s sexy vampires and Herzog’s Nosferatu (although Herzog shot his nine years later so it’s most likely he who was inspired by the blue flesh tone of the master vampire) It’s a strange tale told merely through what feels randomly assembled happenings as the movies starts of with a really poetic and delicate string of imagery showing Valerie becoming a woman. I call it poetic and delicate, because it is just that, and could have been much more provocative, or disturbing, but Jires does the right thing here and keeps it more as a visual reference and not an exploitative trick, which draws you in much easier than being explicit from the start. And the incoherent imagery and scenes start to make sense once you get past their initial visual glory and start to puzzle the narrative together. Slowly but safely the characters are all introduced. Eagle, the young boy who steals Valerie’s earrings several times during the movie, Valerie’s Grandmother, her best friend Hedwig, and the main antagonist, The Evil Constable, who shifts character throughout the movie and is also the Black Bishop, the Vampire, Richard and possibly Valerie’s grandfather and Lover of her Grandmother too!


Keep an eye on Valerie’s earrings, as they are important throughout the movie and play an important role in the story. Not to mention the symbolism they portray. The earrings where heirlooms left for Valerie by her mother, and the searching for the earrings over and over again, throughout the movie is a metaphor for Valerie’s search for the truth about her family. They are once again stolen by eagle and then he produces the pearls telling Valerie to swallow them when she is in trouble, and they will help her. Needless to say they help her out of several creepy situations, adding yet another dreamish surreal feeling to the movie.


Her grandmother tells her not to wear them as they are not suited for a little child. Valerie looks at her and tells grandma that she’s no longer a little girl, but a woman as she got her first period yesterday. From here on the Grandmother becomes obsessed with regaining her youth, desperately trying to seduce the priest that visits them, so that she can feel desired once again. Unlike the last visit he made only a year ago, he rejects her as he has his eyes set on young Valerie and Grandma ends up making a deal with the Vampire, who seems to have at one time been the previous owner of the house that Valerie and her Grandmother live in. She gives him back the house and he promises to restore her youth. This is done very symbolically when Valerie’s best friend Hedwig is married to an older bloke in the village, before he has a chance to consummate the marriage, the now vampiric embodiment of Constable and Grandma, sneak up and bite the young virgin in the neck, draining her of her life-force. Grandma now becomes a revitalized young woman and moves back into the house with Valerie claiming to be her long lost aunt. This theme of feasting on the young and innocence returns later on when Valerie goes to bed with Hedwig for a lesbian snog, bringing Hedwig back to her youthful self through the process. You could also be as bold to state that it's early feminism as Valerie rejects all the male characters making advances on her and instead submits to the gentle caress of her girl friend.


The Vampire grows old and weak, and in her youthful naivety Valerie pities him, but he has concocted a sinister plan together with the now reincarnated Grandmother to take not only Valerie’s but also Eagle's life so that old couple can live on in new forms. Valerie starts to learn the terrible truth of her origin, her mother married to the Bishop didn’t die at all, but was forced away from the house and village by the Vampire, and on top of that, her love and platonic boyfriend Eagle is Valerie’s brother! This is also why Valerie keeps seeing visions of her father all the time! She needs to be reunited with her family to find peace in her new phase in life.

It comes as no shock to that the movie is riddled with nods at coming of age tales and filled to the brim with symbolism as the entire movie is all about the conflict between youth and aging, new and old, life and death…


The original score by Luboš Fišer and Jan Klusák, was released on CD just a few years ago and has inspired much of the work by British Electro band The Broadcast. The album Ha Ha Sound from 2003 is the most obvious with a track being called Valerie. The movie is also said to have inspired Angela Carter who wrote the screenplay for Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie A Company of Wolves which utilizes the same themes, womanhood and coming of age.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonder is a perfect example of how European filmmakers totally master their crafts elegantly blending horror and eroticism to a perfect cocktail of Stylish cinema. Jires never goes too far, but stays just on the line between art house and exploitation which makes Valerie and Her Week of Wonder a definitive jewel of the genre that definitely deserves a spot in every cineasts DVD collection.


Image:
Full screen 4:3. Unfortunately the Redemption print isn’t the best quality, but to their credit they did make sure that the movie got distribution, even in the days of video it was one of their catalogue titles. Second Run DVD have on the other hand re-issued the movie where the transfer has undergone print restoration, new subtitling and an improved audio track has been added. So the Second Run DVD with it's extras (An Essay by Peter Hames, introduction/interview with film historian Micheal Brooke and an interview with lead actress Jaroslava Schallerová) and improved image and audio is the one you should go with.

Audio:
Dolby Stereo 2.0 Czech language, English subtitles burned into the print,

Extras:
There are not many extras that have anything to do with the film, but there is a trailer gallery (Renato Polselli’s Black Magic Rites and Jean Rollin’s The Shiver of the Vampire), a Still gallery (which painfully obviously are all frame grabs), and a music video for Italian Goth/Metal band Cadaveria produced and released on “Triple Silence” the record label owned by the Redemption team. Finally there’s the pathetic Video Art gallery which only has two images of the Facets US DVD sleeve, and the UK Redemption sleeve.

Here's the Second Run DVD trailer for you to enjoy!

Phantom of Death

Phantom of Death
(Aka: Off Balance]
Original Title: Un delitto poco comune
Directed by Ruggero Deodato
Italy, 1988
Thriller/Horror/Giallo, 90min
Distributed by Shameless Screen Entertainment


Story:
Concert Pianist Robert Dominici is a praised musician who’s performances are aired on national television. During one of these televised concerts a scientist is murdered in a beastly manner, and the police are left clueless. Inspector Datti, is put on the case and when Dominici’s girlfriend also is murdered he starts putting together a possible solution that doesn’t make sense, but is plausible. Dominici starts dating his old girlfriend and fashion coordinator Hélène Martell, and pretty soon she turn out to be pregnant with his child, but Robert isn’t as happy as he should be, instead he’s quite the opposite. When Inspector Datti starts figuring out the enigmatic mystery put before him, he’s forced to put logic aside when the suspected killer either is several people or one man aging rapidly…




Me:
I really can’t find much good to say about this movie at all. Perhaps it would be that great Argento-esque second killing in the train station with the great big shattering windows and the always fantastic Edwige Fenech, but not even Edwige feels at place in this terrible piece from Ruggero Deodato. Not to mention Michael York in what might be the worst case of miss-casting ever. Michael York just ruins this film for me completely. He’s so not into his character and he acts like a lump of coal. Which is a shame; because I’m sure that this could have been a great movie if the heart had been in place instead of a lump of coal that generates no empathy or interest at all. Even good old Donald Pleasance is more or less just parodying the “inspector” role that he perfected in so many earlier movies that it’s annoying. The story of a serial killer having a lethal disease which makes him grow older at rapid speed is a great, the few effects by Cataldo Galliano (Sergio Martino’s Island of the Fishmen, and Mannaja, Dario Argento’s Four Flies On Grey Velvet) that are in the movie are very effective and are very appropriate of the late eighties special effects, exaggerated and overdone, but gory as hell and fit the movie like a charm and the aging process of York’s character is really well done, but still his acting ruins everything.

Story wise it’s a very interesting and unique attempt at bringing something new to the genre, as York goes insane parallel with his progeria that is turning him into an old man, and when he learns that Fenech is pregnant with his child he goes after her to inhibit his bad genes from to infect their unborn child, hence prohibiting the child to grow into a “monster child” like the one he has previously seen at an orphanage. It’s a decent plot and really is the strong point of the film, but like I said, York just ruins it completely with his shitty acting. But I suppose that’s what you get when you use the wrong person to play the lead part in your movie. Anyhow, the story brings something new to it and it’s a nice twist to it as you are lead on by the opening montage which crosscuts between York playing the piano, and a doctor being murdered, and it couldn’t possibly be nice Michael York who was the killer, as he was playing the piano live on TV at the time, we saw that didn’t we…?


Pino Donnagio’s score works all right, perhaps not his best work and all that classical piano tinkering just adds to the annoyance, as York’s character is so maddening, but the score gets the job done. Considering that the storywriters/scriptwriters Gianfranco Clerici and Vincenzo Mannino have titles like Fulci’s New York Ripper and Don’t Torture a Duckling, Deodato’s House on the Edge of the Park and Cannibal Holocaust, not to mention Enzo Castellari’s The Last Shark, Umberto Lenzi’s fantastic poliziotteschi Violent Naples and Duccio Tessari’s The Bloodstained Butterfly on their writing credits, it’s painfully obvious that Deodato not only miscast, and failed his directorial duties on this one, but also shot it ten years to late. With the right cast, the right score and made at the right time it would for sure have been a classic, and not a dud once again proving that the giallo as a genre wouldn’t make it into the nineties.

Unfortunately this was also the last collaboration between Deodato and editor Daniele Alabiso, who used to bring a much more violent and aggressive tone to the movies he edited for Deodato during the 70's and 80's. Again the movies unfortunately became more about spectacle than the impact full narratives and jazzy swagger of those gone before them.

Keep a look for the bloke who get’s on the moped just before the train station. Don’t blink because if you do you’ll miss Deodato’s cameo, possibly the only part of the movie he really focused on in this terrible piece of Italian Genre Cinema. Great eighties special effects, some brief nudity and the always wonderful Edwige Fenech, but that’s about it.

Image:
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:
2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo.

Extras:
Trailers for: The Killer Nun, The Black Cat, New York Ripper, Torso, Manhattan Baby, and Baba Yaga - The Devil Witch coming from Shameless Screen Entertainment

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Directed by: Jonathan Levine
Horror, 2006
USA, 90min
Distributed by: Noble Entertainment

Story:
Meet the hottest girl in college, Mandy Lane. Every guy at school has the hots' for her, every single one. When Mandy is invited to spend the weekend at Red’s farmhouse with some of her new friends, things start to go really terribly wrong as someone is stalking and killing them. Who could it be and why? And what is it with Mandy Lane that makes all the boys love her?


Me:
Excuse me? I thought that All the Boys Love Mandy Lane was supposed to be the new smash? The shit, the real deal, amazing and according to all those festival reviews and rant the best darned horror movie in ages with a surprise twist ending… Erhm, what? No I’ve got be honest and say that I really didn’t enjoy this movie. OK, I’ll give them credit for an interesting set up where the strange relationship between Mandy Lane [Amber Heard] and Emmet [Michael Walsh] is presented and explored, it’s really creepy when he manipulates the Jock wanting to get into Mandy’s pants, and her total cold reaction to the terrible event that follows as he smashes into the floor of the pool. But that’s about it. The jump forward in time, and then the red herring that Emmet and Lane don’t get along anymore is kind of lame. Then the expositions to set up that still, all the boys want to bone Mandy Lane. And here’s my first problem, why don’t the other chicks react? If they are a nice little clique of friends that hang out, drink and fuck together, then why the hell would the girls be the ones to arrange and bring Mandy Lane with them on the weekend trip? You’d never bring your own competition to a party would you! That just threw me off as its plain stupid. And from there it’s all down hill, the stupid “beer heist”, the hand job in the back of the car, the arrival at the Ranch and introduction of hero character Garth, the drinking games that lead nowhere and the total despicable characters that are unravelled in front of us. There’s nothing new going on here at all. It’s all genre convention at its worst, stupid kids drinking, taking drugs, and teenage hormones running rampant in their lust for a shag and not enough nudity to keep it interesting. And it would have needed it because the story isn’t that great to tell the truth. Then the antagonist makes it’s entry.


Stuff usually gets going after mediocre exposition and setup when you throw in the antagonist to start the mayhem off, and from a start I thought that this might get better as the first time you actually see the antagonist, no one else does! Obviously inspired by J-Horror and Asian ghost movies, the killer is already in frame as Marlin [Melissa Price] walks up to the totally un-empathetic Jake [Luke Grimes] with a comforting blow job. A very neat detail that I thought would follow through the movie, but unfortunately not. At least this scene evokes some sort of audience emotion, as Marlin tries to comfort Jake and expects the same sexual favours back from him, makes us feel some what empathetic towards her, but totally wanting Jake to be the first to die. But never forget that in generic horror the slut gets more than dick first, she’s also the first to die.

But from there on it just goes for the same old tricks, and then the worst of all why the heck would you expose the killer so early on? It was fairy obvious from that “Not friends anymore!” scene before the kids took off for the ranch that Emmet was going to be the guy stalking them down in a “if I can’t have her nobody else can either.” That is what the opening pool party death and the race track incident add up to, so there’s no real reason to keep Emmet hidden, but then again you want to keep your audience guessing as long as possible, and my line of thought was shattered there as soon as he was revealed. I’ll get back to the reveal I was hoping for later on when I explain how this movie could have rocked so much harder.


Here’s a quick mention of other really stupid things that got me feeling that I was wasting my time with this flick. There’s a power failure and the ranch looses all electricity after Jake fiddles with the fuses in an attempt to make a move on Mandy, which the other two lads already have done. Why don’t the other girls get jealous? Especially as the “pretty” one claims that Mandy looks so much better than her in a tender intoxicated moment in the bathroom. If you say a thing like that you are obviously threatened by Mandy’s good looks and would be jealous as hell if the bloke you where trying to make a move on went after Mandy instead. Ridiculous. Anyway, there’s the power shortage, which separates the group, decent enough move I’ll give them that, but then as Jake makes his move on Mandy, there’s a soft seductive music track playing in the back ground…!? What? I thought this was supposed to be a horror movie, not a romantic piece of schlock. That music did more to break the illusion than anything else, and it lies so low that I really thought that it was supposed to be music playing in the house. Stupid. The party! Now I’ve been to a fair amount of parties just like this one, cesspools of debauchery where alcohol, drugs and sexual lust are so tangible that you could slice it, package it and sell it as a sex aid overseas. But this party just lingers on and on and on, and nobody gives the impression of having a good time or passing out. So I just don’t get it. It’s insulting to me as an audience member. Now for a quick focus on the killings… …well I thought that we where quite used to and all right for onscreen violence and total chaos when it comes to our horror movies. After all 2006 saw grotesque imagery and gore fests like The Hills Have Eyes, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Feast, SAWIII, Hatchet and a whole load of other movies heavily depending on onscreen carnage and death. But after the first initial kill, this movie almost goes off-screen with the violence. Now go figure that out? Why would you do that? Especially that scumbag Jake, I’d torment the crap out of him if this was my movie.

Then there’s the surprise twist ending. Twist yeah maybe, but definitely not surprising at all. It more or less makes sense that Mandy is in cohorts with Emmet, and I started thinking that this was going to be the surprise ending a few minutes before it was revealed, but I still don’t understand for what reason? That’s what annoyed me, it’s just stupid. If they where total outsiders yeah, I could have gone along with it, but these two kids where accepted parts of school hierarchy. Emmet goes with Mandy to the first party, and it’s only because of Mandy snubbing him on the race track that the Chloe disses him. Then when Mandy decides to double cross Emmet just because she’s got the hots for the ranch hand Garth is also quite sudden and illogical. The ending isn’t very satisfying at all, and to be frank not much in the movie as the end credits scroll have been either.

But if you want to say something good about this movie, I have to say that the cinematography by Darren Genet is beautifull, and you have to take your hat of to whoever cut the trailer, because that is an impressive trailer, and it sure had me holding high hopes for this movie, it's just a pity that it turned out to be rather tame. But still a great trailer.


Now here’s my take on the whole thing. First accident/death at the pool party. Yeah keep it it’s going to be essential to the final twist. Also it does a nice job of setting up the strange relationship between Emmet and Mandy. Get the kids out to the ranch after snubbing Emmet on the race track. Fine, keep it and get them out there. Set’s up a good line that will return in the final act. Loose all the ridiculous girlfriends talking Mandy into coming along for the ride. Flip that around and have them doing it as a favour to say Red or one of the other blokes. This gives you the opportunity to alienate Mandy from the other girls later on, and also weave in some complicated threads as Mandy obviously goes along for Jake, which is why she’s appalled when he gets that hand job from Marlin in the back of the car later on. Chloe convinces Mandy to come for Red, Mandy comes for Jake, Chloe is disappointed when Jake tries to go after Mandy, just like all other boys in the film, and devastated when he goes with her best friend Marlin. See you have a very fragile and delicate set up there. None of the girls get along when it comes to men and love, just like in real life. Then bring in your masked antagonist, but make him really terrifying. Keep the great cheerleader chant as he beats Marlin to death, but make it much more visual, that’s why the kids are here. Keep the violence on screen and much more provocative. When the antagonist drives the car up to the house and shoots fireworks at the on the porch, let a fire work hit one of them in the face, ruining their good luscious looks and taking one of the few values they have away from them. Imagine, your friends face is a smashed burning crater, and as he/she lies screaming on the porch the others have already taken to hiding behind the front door. Create a moral dilemma, risk your life to save your mate, or cower as he dies a painful death! Sprinkle a lot more nudity throughout the movie, give us a few teasing shots of Mandy “the untouchable” if you really want her to be so much hotter than the others. Make the audience want Mandy too. Shock ending, here you go, Hint at Emmet being in the area, but don’t reveal that he’s the killer, don’t even show him, just hint Let the audience do the math, give them an investigatory challenge. Then the surprise twist, just before the last fight the last crescendo Chloe runs towards Mandy, reveal the killer in the car… OH MY GOD IT’S DYLAN, FROM THE POOL PARTY! With his scared face and disfigured back after the terrible accident in the opening sequence he’s made it his mission to kill Mandy and all of her new little mates, because, “If I can’t have her, no one can!” This makes sense because, after all the guy threw himself of a fucking roof in an attempt to get in her panties remember? Then as Mandy kills Chloe have her stare in terror at Dylan, because that’s NOT who she was expecting to see, she was expecting Emmet, who she shares a death pact with. Enter Emmet, have him and Dylan fight to the death, Mandy assisting Emmet. In the fight Dylan tears Mandy’s clothing exposing her breasts, even keep them in her bra if you are too prude, but tear that shirt, it’s setting you up for the REAL shock ending. The fight goes on, Emmet is more or less dead, you now think that he’s only been there to stalk Mandy and through his mad behavior saved her life for a moment longer. Mandy beats Dylan to death even in the cow grave just like in the real movie if you like. It’s a nice disturbing touch. She goes back to the lethally wounded Emmet, and sits next to him. They look at each other and we realise that they still are very close friends. “Did I do good?” He asks, “You did great” Mandy says sobbing. She drags his head into her lap and he produces the vial containing the suicide pills and explains their death pact just as in the real movie. Then she sobbingly agrees as he tries his best with his bloodied hands to cover up that exposed breast. She kisses him and they both take the pills. Now Garth who we have been counting on to be the hero drives up in his jeep only to find a bunch of dead kids. GOSH! That’s shocking! Three killers, two working as a team the other one solo, but all of them unaware of the others presence. But for this to work we need to set two things up, one in that opening sequence, one later after the reveal. In the opening sequence, Emmet needs to try to get a peak at Mandy as she changes clothes or something, this to give effect to the final scene where he tries to cover her up, his love is now much deeper than the other blokes as his love is much more than lust and the desire to see a pair of tits. The second set up needs to be the back-story of why Emmet and Mandy chose to go on a killing spree. We need to see how the new gang engulfs Mandy and more or less alienate Emmet from her, preferably by some humiliating rite where Mandy can’t intervene but is present. This will be their reason for murder. The death of Mandy at the end will pack much more impact than the lame drive off ending that the movie has now. And that my friends is my take on how to create a shocking movie with a surprise twist ending.


Image:
2.35:1 Anamporphic Widescreen

Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts Digital Surround, English dialogue with Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish subtitles

Extras:
Trailers for other titles from Noble; The Mist and a totally terrible Kärlek3000 trailer. That's all folks.

The Oasis of Fear

The Oasis of Fear

Original Title: Un Posto ideale per uccidere
Directed by: Umberto Lenzi
Thriller, 1971
Italy, 90min
Distributed by: Shameless Screen Entertainment

Story:
Two peace loving hippies, Ingrid and Dick, make their living by peddling smut that they pick up in Denmark and sell for a fortune in Italy. Selling off all their stock, they go wild spend most their profit on clothes, food and champagne and soon find themselves back at square one again, and after being ripped off by a travelling biker gang they are completely broke. In desperation they make their own “dirty photographs” to sell to the punters, but this leads to them being apprehended by the fuzz for breaking the law. Their camera confiscated, they are told to get out of the country or they will be thrown in the slammer for selling their homemade erotica. Keeping a positive spirit they start their trip back to stock up on new items, but after trying to exchange some passport booth pics of Ingrid at a gas station their paranoia runs wild, and they try to hide. Luckily for them, they come upon a house where they plan to hide out, repaint the car and keep out of sight for a while. But the house is not abandoned, and as they start to hang out with the ever so nervous Barbra who lives there, sinister plans are sat in motion…


Me:
Good old Umberto Lenzi, a very underrated genre director who’s unfortunately mostly remembered for that god awful Cannibal Ferox [1981], (god awful in a good way) the one supposedly “Banned in 31 countries” one, the sad reworking of his previous masterful entries into the obscure Cannibal genre. The 1972 Man from Deep River is the one to check out if you ever want to explore that depraved world of death violence and flesh easting savages (or Deodato's magnificent Cannibal Holocaust [1980] of course). But don’t be fooled by the reputation that Ferox has labelled this great director with, because in many a case Umberto Lenzi made brilliant genre movies. He directed some of my favourite Gialli, some truly disturbing horror flicks and some incredible poliziotteschi movies too, not to mention all those Swords'n'sandals and westerns. So don’t write him off so easily thanks to that one reknown gutmuncher. The Oasis of Fear, or rather, An ideal place to kill, if you prefer a proper translation of the title and not a cheesy re-titling, is a fascinating and impressive thriller where you’ll never quite know where things are going to go. Brilliantly cast with Ray Lovelock as the English hippie Dick Butler, a young Ornella Mutti in her third starring role as the sexy Ingrid Sjöman , and screen legend Irene Papas as Barbara Slater, the desperate housewife to say the least.


It’s an interesting movie as Lenzi spends so much time building up these two sympathetic young characters before starting to push them towards their descent. As all good storytellers will tell you, you have to build to a high before you can hurl your characters to a low to motivate that noble climb back to stature. That’s pretty much what Lenzi does with all three of the lead characters, as he has the young hip sexy Dick and Ingrid wind up in the house of the distraught housewife Barbra. From the start Barbara is very nervy, and wants them to leave, but pretty soon she’s making moves on Dick and downing spirits with them as if there was no tomorrow. This is where the gialli-ish themes start to make their way into the movie, as we understand that Dick and Ingrid are setting up Barbra, or is perhaps Barbara the one conning the young couple. A healthy amount of kinky sequences later the all is in full movement as Dick and Ingrid discover that Barbara’s army husband isn’t on his way back from the base, but in fact dead in the boot of his car. Now both parties have to keep a calm face as Military police and the nosey gardener keep interrupting their suspenseful mind games. Who will get the blame for the murder? Will it be pinned on the young couple or on the housewife? Who’s fooling who? Exciting stuff that will keep you on the keep you engaged as the values shift back and forth until the shocking ending.

During the start of the movie, as they buy smut in Denmark, with obligatory shots of the little mermaid statue in the harbour, there’s a great little detail which kids of today will be freaked out by. In a time before internet porn people actually listened to other people shagging on cassette tapes or vinyl records. It’s a great little detail completely unimportant in 1971 when Lenzi made the movie, but hilarious now in retrospect.

Perhaps not as twisted and disturbing as some of his Gialli or as dark and violent as his poliziotteschi’s, but still a very entertaining film, with great lead actors, a full range of fantastic genre super names in bit parts [Calisto Calisti, Jaques Stany and Michel Bardinet to name a few] and then there’s the terribly catchy theme song that frequently is reused in a varied number of arrangements, even an Indian influenced one to accompany Mutti in Indian outfit, by Bruno Lauzi. Eugenio Alabiso’s rapid editing has to be acknowledged too, as he really keeps a great tight pace throughout the movie. But the main ingredient to make this movie worth the while is the simple fact that it’s character driven. The characters and their interaction is what make this movie flow, instead of the customary tom foolery and set up in between each murder of the common Giallo. To top it all off, Shameless have put together a complete rebuilt version of the movie where several scenes previously missing are back in place. Scenes that you won’t really understand why they where taken out as they are of plot specific nature! Great stuff indeed, Umberto Lenzi in great shape and form!

Image:
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen.

Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Extras:
Trailers for other Shameless Screen Entertainment releases, [Torso, Strip Nude for Your Killer, Baba Yaga - Reloaded, Watch Me When I Kill, The Frightened Woman and The Designated Victim] Trailer for The Oasis of Fear and a rather entertaining, and informative text commentary by The Wilson Bros.